Bukele made the offer on Sunday night in a message addressed directly to his authoritarian counterpart Nicolás Maduro.
Hours later the proposal was rebuffed by one of Maduro’s top allies, the attorney general Tarek William Saab.
Human rights activists say more than 360 prisoners have died.
According to the human rights group Foro Penal, Maduro’s jails currently house about 900 political prisoners.
From Bukele’s perspective, offer was “a smart way of shifting the conversation away from concerns around the deportees being held in El Salvador back to the existence of political prisoners in Venezuela”, Ramsay said.
Seemingly fearful of alienating Trump’s administration, its key leaders – including including Machado – have said little about the migration crackdown or the deportation of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador.
“But on the other hand, the general public in Venezuela is outraged at the situation faced by those who’ve been deported and sent to this maximum security jail in El Salvador. »
