Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has demanded El Salvador release hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported from the United States, who he described as being “kidnapped,” after his Salvadoran counterpart earlier proposed a prisoner swap.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has criticized his Venezuelan counterpart's rejection of a swap that would see Venezuelan deportees from the United States detained in El Salvador exchanged for what he said were “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele proposed a swap in which more than 200 Venezuelan migrants deported there from the US would be traded for the same number of political prisoners held by Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.