CARACAS, April 25, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The attorney general of Venezuela said Thursday that El Salvador's president is guilty of "human trafficking" for charging money to incarcerate Venezuelan migrants expelled from the United States.

"He is committing the crime of human trafficking... he is charging $7 million dollars for having these Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador," Tarek William Saab told AFP, calling it "a dirty business."

"International justice will be done against Bukele on this issue," Saab added.

To deport the Venezuelans to El Salvador, US President Donald Trump invoked an antiquated American law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to defend his order to expel 252 Venezuelans to El Salvador, accusing them of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Despite a US Supreme Court order barring this interpretation, El Salvador has locked up the deportees in CECOT, a high security mega-prison, in exchange for $6 million.

The rebuke is the latest in a growing rift between Bukele and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, who is calling for the unconditional release of the Venezuelans.

On Sunday, Bukele said he would comply with Venezuela's request in exchange for Caracas' release of anti-Maduro dissidents and citizens from other countries.

Saab called that offer "cynical" and demanded a complete list of the detained migrants.

Many families of detainees assert that their relatives never belonged to Tren de Aragua and say the tattoos used by US authorities to justify the deportations mean nothing.

Gangs expert and author Ronna Risquez said "tattoos are not a way to identify members of" the gang, which has no identification tattoos.