El Salvador offers Venezuela prisoner swap involving US deportees

El Salvador's president has offered to repatriate 252 Venezuelans deported by the US and imprisoned in his country - if Venezuela releases the same number of political prisoners.

Nayib Bukele appealed directly to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a post on social media.

He said many of the Venezuelan deportees had committed "rape and murder", while Venezuelan political prisoners were jailed only because they opposed Maduro, whose re-election last year is widely disputed.

Later Venezuela's chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab criticised Bukele's proposal. He demanded to know what crimes the deportees were accused of, whether they had appeared before a judge or had access to legal counsel.

The Venezuelan government argues that it has no political prisoners - a claim rejected by rights groups.