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Families welcome Venezuelans released from El Salvador with joy, grief

The Washington Post · last updated

Angela Leal went to bed Thursday and recited the prayer she has whispered to herself each night for the last four months. She asked God to keep her husband safe, to give him strength and to bring him home.

The next morning, she woke to the answer she’d been waiting for: The United States had made a deal with the Venezuelan government to send more than 250 Venezuelans jailed in El Salvador back home. The men deported from the U.S. would be landing on two flights in exchange for the release of 10 American citizens and permanent U.S. residents imprisoned in Venezuela.