El Salvador and USA forge controversial prisoner deal
The United States will compensate El Salvador for "detaining violent criminals from the USA" and accepting deported individuals of any nationality. "It is a bizarre and unprecedented proposal being made potentially between two authoritarian, populist, right-wing leaders seeking a transactional relationship," CNN reports.
The agreement was announced on Monday after a meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. Rubio is travelling through Central America to expedite the implementation of the Donald Trump administration's new migration program.
"In an act of extraordinary friendship to our country … (El Salvador) has agreed to the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," Rubio told journalists.
El Salvador to accept criminals from the USA
El Salvador, home to about 6.3 million people, will continue to accept deported citizens from the USA. But it plans to go further. As Rubio announced, El Salvador will "accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren de Aragua and house them in his jails."
MS-13 and Tren de Aragua are international gangs, with most of their members coming from El Salvador or Colombia. Rubio added that Bukele "has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents."
The President of El Salvador himself confirmed this information on the X platform. He stated that his country "offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system." "We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee."
CECOT is a maximum-security mega-prison in El Salvador that opened in 2023. It is the largest correctional facility in Latin America and can house 40,000 inmates.
The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable — explained Bukele.
However, the transaction amount, which human rights organizations oppose, was not disclosed. "It's a sad day for America," assessed the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), quoted by CNN.
The station reminds that since 2022, a state of emergency has been in effect in El Salvador due to high crime rates and the number of murders. Bukele decided to fight gangs by filling prisons with suspects. According to Amnesty International, among the 80,000 imprisoned, there are many innocent people.
"Migrants treated like cattle"
The organization, commenting on the deportation action launched in January by the Donald Trump administration, stated that it opposes "treating deported non-criminal migrants like cattle who can be shuttled from one country to another without regard to their home of origin."
Commentators also criticize the latest proposal from El Salvador. According to Professor Mneesha Gellman from Emerson College in Boston, "It is a bizarre and unprecedented proposal" between "two authoritarian, populist, right-wing leaders seeking a transactional relationship." Gellman added that the agreement "likely violates a number of international laws relating to the rights of migrants."
"It’s not rooted in any sort of legal provision and likely violates a number of international laws relating to the rights of migrants," added the international policy researcher.
