El Salvador has sent home 252 Venezuelans from its notorious Cecot jail in a prisoner swap for 10 US citizens.

Nayib Bukele, the country’s president, said in a post on X that those freed in Venezuela were en route to El Salvador from where they would continue “their journey home”.

“Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organisation Tren de Aragua (TDA). Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes.

“As was offered to the Venezuelan regime back in April, we carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages,” he said.