A longtime Baltimore media producer was among 10 U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents freed in a recent prisoner swap from what U.S. officials have called a series of wrongful detentions in Venezuela.

Erick Oribio Quintana, a dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizen, is the founder of Latin Opinion LLC, an advertising consulting and public relations company that publishes a free, monthly Spanish-language newspaper with local, state and national news that is distributed around Baltimore.

He and his brother, Ronald Oribio Quintana, a legal permanent resident or “green card” holder, were freed last week, a State Department official not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed. They were let go as part of the negotiations that sent hundreds of Venezuelans deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in March back to their home country.

The official said the brothers were wrongfully detained as political leverage by the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. officials have long decried as a dictator.

The brothers were arrested Jan. 7 in Venezuela, according to the nonprofit Global Reach, which worked with the families of five of the detained individuals to advocate for their release. The last entry on Oribio Quintana’s Facebook page, where he frequently posted Latin Opinion articles and information about Maryland events, is from Jan. 7.

Attempts to reach Oribio Quintana and Latin Opinion, which has continued to post content online, were unsuccessful. He is in Texas participating in a government program designed to evaluate and support people who have experienced trauma, according to Global Reach.

“It is amazing to hear that my uncle Erick and father Ronald are free. They did nothing wrong,” Maria Fernanda Oribio Ruiz wrote in a statement issued through the nonprofit.

The family does not wish to share additional information, according to the nonprofit.

The deal was brokered in part by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has garnered more public attention in the United States after agreeing this year to hold people deported from the U.S. in an infamous Salvadoran mega prison.

In March, the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelans it accused of being members of a criminal gang called Tren de Aragua to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a power last invoked during World War II.

Many of those deported had no criminal history, according to media reports and statements from human rights organizations, and were accused of gang affiliation because of their tattoos.

Bukele has been trying to negotiate publicly with Maduro since April, when he offered to send 252 Venezuelans being held in El Salvador back to Venezuela if Maduro agreed to free 252 political prisoners.

Last Friday, Bukele posted a video on X showing a group of men stepping off a plane in El Salvador, including an individual who appears to be Oribio Quintana, under the caption, “You’re free now...”

The deal also secured the release of former U.S. Navy sailor Wilbert Castañeda and Lucas Hunter, a dual U.S.-French citizen, both of whom were detained while on personal travel, according to news reports, along with 80 Venezuelan political prisoners held by Maduro, Bukele said in the video.

In his own statement posted on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked President Donald Trump and Bukele for securing the agreement. In a separate post days later, he said the Maduro regime runs on “corruption, theft, and economic chaos.”

Maduro referred to the 10 men as “terrorists” and “CIA agents,” according to Venezuelan state-run media, and called El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center where the Venezuelan deportees were held a “concentration camp.”

Oribio Quintana was born and raised in Caracas, the capital of the South American country, and came to the United States in the mid-1990s, according to a previous interview. He credits himself with starting Baltimore’s first Spanish-language radio and print news programs.

Latin Opinion published a story written by Banner reporter Daniel Zawodny in 2020 when he was a student journalist.