Special envoy calls Bukele ‘a good friend’ after prisoner swap with Venezuela

U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, called Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele “a good friend” after he helped secure the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela in exchange for the return of more than 250 Venezuelans that the U.S. had sent to be imprisoned in El Salvador.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Boehler said the hostage exchange has been “months in the works” and is a result of “a great, unbelievable team, in terms of people on the ground, career people that folks don't ever hear of,” who were “driving this bus really hard back and forth.”

“The reality here is Bukele had — who's been great — Bukele had a number of people there at CECOT. He made a deal with Venezuela, and then Venezuela released all Americans, and so our portion of that deal was to make sure that all of our boys got home,” Boehler said.

CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Boehler on the Trump administration’s repeated insistence that it has no influence over Bukele—an argument officials made after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador but has since returned to the U.S.

“Doesn't this exchange show the Trump administration does, in fact, have the ability to work with Bukele and to get people released from this El Salvador prison when they want to?” Tapper asked.

“Well, what it shows is that the president has been very clear. Bringing Americans home is a critical priority. We don't accept when other countries take people,” Boehler responded.

“President Bukele has been a good friend, friend enough to know what's important to the United States, and so we appreciate the fact that he cleared a deal with Venezuela to release these Americans that came home,” he continued.