By MARCOS ALEMAN and MEGAN JANETSKY

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

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In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.

“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.”

Among those he listed were the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, a number of political leaders seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, and what he said were 50 detained citizens from a number of different countries across the world. Bukele also listed the mother of opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose house the political leader has said was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January.

Bukele said he would ask El Salvador’s foreign ministry to be in contact with the Maduro government.

Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office responded Sunday night, calling Bukele’s statements “cynical” and referred to the Salvadoran leader as a “neofascist.”

It demanded Bukele’s government provide the Venezuelan government with a list of the people detained as well as their legal status and medical reports.

“The treatment received by Venezuelans in the United States and El Salvador, constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and constitutes a crime against humanity,” it said in the statement.

The proposal comes as El Salvador has come under sharp international scrutiny for accepting Venezuelans and Salvadorans deported by the Trump administration, which accused them of being alleged gang members with little evidence. Deportees are locked up in a “mega-prison” know as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), built by the Bukele government during his crackdown on the country’s gangs.

Controversy has only continued after it was revealed that a Maryland father married to a U.S. citizen, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported by mistake. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his return, but there’s no sign of that happening.

El Salvador’s archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas on Sunday called on Bukele not “to allow our country to become a big international prison.”

Despite the controversy, Bukele maintained that all of the people he has kept in the prison were “part of part of an operation against gangs like the Tren de Aragua in the United States.”

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of Pope Francis’ final encounters before his death was with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who visited the Vatican over the weekend.

The meeting took place on Easter Sunday. Vance, a Catholic convert, entered the room and reached down for the pope’s hand. “Hello,” the vice president said. “So good to see you.”

Francis was sitting in a wheelchair, and his words were inaudible in a video released by the Vatican.

“I know you’ve not been feeling great, but it’s good see you in better health,” Vance said.

A priest serving as a translator spoke for the pope.

“These are for your children,” the priest said as someone presented Vance with chocolate eggs. Next came a tray of additional gifts, including rosaries and a Vatican tie.

“Thank you,” Vance said as he held the dark tie. “So beautiful.”

They posed for a photo, Vance standing to the pope’s right before bidding him farewell.

“I pray for you every day,” Vance said. “God bless you.”

Vance’s visit was not without political sensitivities, and he met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Saturday for what the Vatican described as “an exchange of opinions.” The Catholic Church, under Francis’ leadership, has championed the rights of migrants, while Vance and President Donald Trump have advocated for crackdowns.

Vance’s office said the vice president and the cardinal “discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace.”

Leavitt told reporters that she had spoken to members of Vance’s team on Monday morning after Francis’ death.

“They expressed how excited and grateful they were for the opportunity to have met with the pope just yesterday,” she said.

Leavitt added that Francis “touched millions of lives throughout his tenure as the head of the Catholic Church and so it’s a solemn day for Catholics around the world and we are praying for all those who loved the pope and believed in him.”

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social: “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!”

Vance, who continued on to India after Italy, posted additional thoughts on social media.

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“I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him,” he wrote on X. “I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill.”

Vance shared a link to remarks that Francis gave on March 27, 2020, as COVID-19 was spreading around the globe.

“I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID,” Vance wrote. “It was really quite beautiful.”

Francis had spoken from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

“Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities,” he said. “It has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void.”

He encouraged people to rely on their faith to help then endure “because with God life never dies.”

A 76-year-old woman died after she was struck by a teen driver in St. Paul on Sunday.

The crash happened about 3:40 p.m. at Third and Flandrau streets in the Eastview neighborhood of the East Side. St. Paul Fire Department medics took the woman to Regions Hospital, where she died soon after, said Sgt. Toy Vixayvong, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The 17-year-old driver stayed at the scene and was cooperative with the investigation, which is ongoing.

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Local Catholics will gather at noon today at the Cathedral of St. Paul to remember Pope Francis, who died at the age of 88 early Monday morning.

The Mass, which will be led by Archbishop Bernard Hebda, will be the first of the traditional nine Masses offered for the repose of his soul, according to a statement released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“It is with profound sadness that I learned this morning of the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis,” Hebda wrote in a statement posted Monday morning. “Along with Catholics and men and women of good will throughout the world, I gave thanks to Almighty God for his life and example, and I pray with Easter hope for the repose of his soul.

“How providential that our loving God would call Pope Francis home just as we begin our 50 days of celebrating Christ’s victory over sin and death. I trust that he felt the comforting prayers of the world as he joined the crowd in St. Peter’s Square yesterday for the Church’s celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death. The Holy Father’s powerful Easter greeting, expressing his closeness to those experiencing the scourge of war and abandonment will be long remembered as his testament.

“I will be grateful to Pope Francis for assigning me to serve as the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. I have fond memories this day of all the times that he assured me of his prayers for this Archdiocese.

“I ask you to join me in praying for the Holy Father, especially over the next nine days. I ask our pastors to open their Churches today for all desiring to offer their prayers for Pope Francis and for the Church that he so generously led.”

In 2016, Pope Frances gave Hebda the pallium – a band of white wool decorated with three black symbolic “nails” – that he wears “to symbolize our province’s connection and communion with the Successor of Peter,” he wrote in a reflection and call to prayer when it was announced in February that Pope Francis’ was in critical condition.

“The wool of the pallium always serves to remind the Pope and his brother archbishops that they are supposed to be like the good shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, while the nails remind them of the sacrifice that Jesus, the true Good Shepherd, offered for us on the cross, calling us to embrace sacrifice as well, always while drawing our strength from the cross,” Hebda wrote.

Francis, he wrote, was “experiencing the cross in a new way.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called Pope Francis a “a voice for the voiceless.”

“The one time I saw him pray for and address the gathered at St. Peter’s Square, when he finished, he did what he always did — he greeted and blessed those with disabilities first,” she wrote in a statement posted on social media.

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