Category World News

In exchange for the release of American citizens and political prisoners imprisoned in Venezuela, a global agreement has been reached. Venezuelans who have been deported from the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador can now go back to their home countries.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Friday that the agreement had resulted in the release of 10 Americans.

Ten Americans detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom, Rubio wrote on social media.

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, also praised the agreement, claiming that all Venezuelan detainees who have been detained in his nation have been “handed over.”

A US ally, Bukele, said in a statement on social media that “we conducted this exchange in return for a significant number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that the regime had held as hostages for years, as well as all of the American citizens it was holding as hostages.”

These travelers are currently traveling to El Salvador, where they will stop briefly before returning home.

In order to release political prisoners in Venezuela, Bukele has previously stated that he would be willing to do so. Nicolas Maduro, a socialist leader in Venezuela since 2013, has long been criticized by him and US President Donald Trump.

“This operation is the outcome of months of negotiations with a tyrannical regime that had long refused to release one of its most precious bargaining tools: its hostages,” Bukele continued.

252 Americans who have been deported to El Salvador have been confirmed to the Venezuelan government.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello also disclosed to the media that seven children who had been deported from the US had also been sent to Venezuela.

The complex, multifaceted negotiations that underpin President Donald Trump’s campaign for widespread deportation in the US are just the latest instance of this.

There have long been rumors about such a deal between the three nations.

However, the arrangement raises questions about how other foreign policy priorities might be influenced by Trump’s mass deportation push. Additionally, there has been renewed scrutiny of how people who have been deported from the US are treated in foreign nations without any connection.

A contentious deportation

More than 200 people were transferred to a maximum-security facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) in El Salvador in March after Venezuela protested the deportation of its citizens from the US.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law used only three times during the war, was invoked by President Trump to facilitate that transfer.

The US leader argued that illegal immigration into the country was a “invasion” of criminals from other nations.

However, his use of that law has been contested constitutionally by the courts.

El Salvador has also been accused of alleged human rights violations, including beatings, torture, and sleep deprivation, by critics.

Bukele’s own efforts to impose a mass incarceration include the CECOT prison. With a capacity of up to 40 000 people, it opened in 2023.

Trump argued that because the Venezuelans belonged to gangs like Tren de Aragua, deporting them was a necessary step. On Friday, Bukulele echoed that accusation, saying that all deportees from Venezuela were “accused of being a part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua.”

However, some of the men are known to have no criminal records.

Some detained Venezuelans have since filed lawsuits, alleging that some of their attorneys were targeted because of their clothing choices or tattoos, which US immigration officials then used to falsely connect them to gangs.

Deportations by third parties

Additionally, the Trump administration has argued that immigrants who are deported to third-party nations like El Salvador must be in their homes.

Venezuela has previously turned down deportations from the US. Trump and Maduro’s relationship is infamously conflicted. Trump even offered a $15 million bounty for information that might lead to Maduro’s arrest in 2020.

Trump has instead sought negotiations with the Venezuelan government during his second term in place of returning to the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his first term as president.

The Maduro government has responded by saying it is ready to accept US deportees from Venezuela.

For instance, it hosted US special envoy Richard Grenell in Caracas in the middle of January, leading to the release of six Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. Following a second meeting with Grenell, the Maduro administration also let a US Air Force veteran who was being held in custody in May.

According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Grenell’s task was to “return all US detainees to their homes.” How many people are still living there?

However, Maduro’s presidency is still disputed by the US government. Due to fraud allegations, Maduro’s contested election for a third term in 2024 has weakened his reputation internationally.

Controversies over massive deportations

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has had its own controversy. After Grenell and Marco Rubio made rival deals, the Trump White House “botched” the agreement to free Americans in Venezuela, according to The New York Times last week.

According to The Times, Rubio had suggested a deal with Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador. Grenell had, however, suggested alternative terms that would allow Venezuela to maintain its trade relationship with Chevron, which would have greatly benefited its struggling economy.

Apparently, there was confusion and uncertainty as a result.

Additionally, the Trump administration’s apparent unwillingness to repatriate immigrants who may have been unfairly deported has drawn criticism abroad.

The Trump administration was given the order in June by District Judge James Boasberg to ensure that the Venezuelan men held in El Salvador had access to justice. Boasberg made the point in his decision that they could not contest both their deportations and the rumor that they were gang members because of their swift removal in March.

A federal appeals court in Washington has, however, put off that court order.

The previous Trump administration’s claims that it was unable to release the deported men from the CECOT prison are also raised in doubt by Friday’s agreement. The deportees are a problem that the US government cannot solve while they are in El Salvador, according to Trump officials.

Additionally, El Salvador’s president, Bukele, claimed he lacked the authority to stop the men from returning. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was briefly detained in CECOT after being wrongfully deported in March, was the subject of a conversation Bukele made in an Oval Office appearance in April.

The query is absurd, I say. How does one enter the United States through smuggling? According to Bukele, “I don’t have the authority to return him to the United States.”

An explosion at a training facility on Friday morning claimed the lives of three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officers. According to sheriff Robert Luna, this was the department’s biggest life loss since 1857. The issue is being looked into.

The government claims that it wants to modernize the UK democracy by lowering the voting age.

International public opinion continues to turn against Israel for its war on Gaza, with more governments slowly beginning to reflect those voices and increase their own condemnation of the country.

In the last few weeks, Israeli government ministers have been sanctioned by several Western countries, with the United Kingdom, France and Canada issuing a joint statement condemning the “intolerable” level of “human suffering” in Gaza.

Earlier this week, a number of countries from the Global South, “The Hague Group”, collectively agreed on a number of measures that they say will “restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

Across the world, and in increasing numbers, the public, politicians and, following an Israeli strike on a Catholic church in Gaza, religious leaders are speaking out against Israel’s killings in Gaza.

So, are world powers getting any closer to putting enough pressure on Israel for it to stop?

Here’s what we know.

What is the Hague Group?

According to its website, the Hague Group is a global bloc of states committed to “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures” in defence of international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Made up of eight nations; South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia and Senegal, the group has set itself the mission of upholding international law, and safeguarding the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations, principally “the responsibility of all nations to uphold the inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, that it enshrines for all peoples”.

Earlier this week, the Hague Group hosted a meeting of some 30 nations, including China, Spain and Qatar, in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Also attending the meeting was UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who characterised the meeting as “the most significant political development in the past 20 months”.

Albanese was recently sanctioned by the United States for her criticism of its ally, Israel.

At the end of the two-day meeting, 12 of the countries in attendance agreed to six measures to limit Israel’s actions in Gaza. Included in those measures were blocks on supplying arms to Israel, a ban on ships transporting weapons and a review of public contracts for any possible links to companies benefiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Have any other governments taken action?

More and more.

On Wednesday, Slovenia barred far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering its territory after the wider European Union failed to agree on measures to address charges of widespread human rights abuses against Israel.

Slovenia’s ban on the two government ministers builds upon earlier sanctions imposed upon Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in June by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and Norway over their “incitement to violence”. The two men have been among the most vocal Israeli ministers in rejecting any compromise in negotiations with Palestinians, and pushing for the Jewish settlement of Gaza, as well as the increased building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In May, the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement describing Israel’s escalation of its campaign against Gaza as “wholly disproportionate” and promising “concrete actions” against Israel if it did not halt its offensive.

Later that month, the UK followed through on its warning, announcing sanctions on a handful of settler organisations and announcing a “pause” in free trade negotiations with Israel.

Also in May, Turkiye announced that it would block all trade with Israel until the humanitarian situation in Gaza was resolved.

South Africa first launched a case for genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in late December 2023, and has since been supported by other countries, including Colombia, Chile, Spain, Ireland, and Turkiye.

In January of 2024, the ICJ issued its provisional ruling, finding what it termed a “plausible” case for genocide and instructing Israel to undertake emergency measures, including the provision of the aid that its government has effectively blocked since March of this year.

What other criticism of Israel has there been?

Israel’s bombing on Thursday of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, killing three people, drew a rare rebuke from Israel’s most stalwart ally, the United States.

Following what was reported to be an “angry” phone call from US President Trump after the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement expressing its “deep regret” over the attack.

To date, Israel has killed more than 58,000 people in Gaza, the majority women and children.

Has the tide turned internationally?

Mass public protests against Israel’s war on Gaza have continued around the world throughout its duration.

And there are clear signs of growing anger over the brutality of the war and the toll it is taking on Palestinians in Gaza.

In Western Europe, a survey carried out by the polling company YouGov in June found that net favourability towards Israel had reached its lowest ebb since tracking began.

A similar poll produced by CNN this week found similar results among the American public, with only 23 percent of respondents agreeing Israel’s actions in Gaza were fully justified, down from 50 percent in October 2023.

Public anger has also found voice at high-profile public events, including music festivals such as Germany’s Fusion Festival, Poland’s Open’er Festival and the UK’s Glastonbury festival, where both artists and their supporters used their platforms to denounce the war on Gaza.

Has anything changed in Israel?

Protests against the war remain small but are growing, with organisations, such as Standing Together, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian activists to protest the war.

There has also been a growing number of reservists refusing to show up for duty. In April, the Israeli magazine +972 reported that more than 100,000 reservists had refused to show up for duty, with open letters from within the military protesting the war growing in number since.

Will it make any difference?

Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition has been pursuing its war on Gaza despite its domestic and international unpopularity for some time.

The government’s most recent proposal, that all of Gaza’s population be confined into what it calls a “humanitarian city”, but has been likened to a concentration camp and has been taken by many of its critics as evidence that it no longer cares about either international law or global opinion.

Internationally, despite its recent criticism of Israel for its bombing of Gaza’s one Catholic church, US support for Israel remains resolute. For many in Israel, the continued support of the US, and President Donald Trump in particular, remains the one diplomatic absolute they can rely upon to weather whatever diplomatic storms their actions in Gaza may provoke.

In addition to that support, which includes diplomatic guarantees through the use of the US veto in the United Nations Security Council and military support via its extensive arsenal, is the US use of sanctions against Israel’s critics, such as the International Criminal Court, whose members were sanctioned in June after it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges.