Maduro says 324 Venezuelans sent to El Salvador prison

CARACAS

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on March 29 that 324 Venezuelan migrants have been sent by the United States to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, a higher figure than previously given, but said also that neither Washington nor San Salvador has yet given him an official list.

U.S. President Donald Trump invoked rarely used U.S. wartime legislation to fly the Venezuelans to El Salvador on March 16, without the migrants being afforded any kind of court hearing.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said 238 Venezuelans were sent to his country after the United States accused them of being part of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

It is an "embarrassment that has been committed with the kidnapping and forced disappearance of 324 Venezuelan migrants who were taken to a Nazi concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said at a meeting in Caracas with foreign ministers from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) bloc.

Maduro acknowledged that he does not yet have an official list.

"Officially no authority from either the United States or El Salvador has sent an official communication recognizing who was kidnapped," he said.

Maduro is pushing for the group to be sent to Venezuela and has hired a law firm in El Salvador.

He also spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guerres to ask for their protection.