Venezuela Launches Investigation Into El Salvador’s President Over Prisoner Treatment
Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced that Venezuela began an investigation into El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and his senior officials regarding their role in the alleged torture of 252 migrants deported from the United States and held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Al Jazeera)
Saab claimed that the prisoners were sexually abused, beaten, and fed rotten prison food in what he called “systemic torture” (BBC)
El Salvador Rights Group Flees
Twenty members of the humanitarian rights group Cristobal have been forced into exile, citing safety concerns amid President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on critics, according to Reuters; known for its investigations into Bukele’s government, the group now has only one member remaining in El Salvador—its anticorruption director, who was jailed in May (Reuters)
U.S. Maintains Control of Migrants Sent to Salvadoran Prison
Despite the Trump administration’s claims that it is powerless to bring back one hundred Venezuelan migrants whom it deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, lawyers for the Venezuelan migrants claim this is inaccurate, as a UN report and the Salvadoran government confirmed that the deportees are still under U.S. control (AP)
TPS Revoked for Hondurans and Nicaraguans
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from both countries; the move takes effect in approximately sixty days and will affect tens of thousands of migrants (Guardian)
Honduras and Nicaragua received TPS status in 1999 following a hurricane; Trump revoked it in his first term, and the Joe Biden administration later reinstated it (NPR)
El Salvador Prison Account
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrégo García, who was mistakenly expelled to El Salvador in March before being returned to the United States, said in a court filing that he was beaten, deprived of sleep, and psychologically tortured while in Salvadorian custody; the Trump administration is pursuing criminal charges against Abrégo García that he denies, while seeking to dismiss the lawsuit against it regarding Abrégo García’s expulsion (NYT)
Probe Into MS-13
A deal to send migrants to El Salvador could have undercut ongoing U.S. efforts to dismantle the gang MS-13, according to a New York Times report; Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent Washington a list of detained MS-13 leaders he wanted sent back to El Salvador as part of the deal (NYT)
U.S. prosecutors are now trying to drop charges against an MS-13 leader, citing “foreign policy considerations”; the White House pushed back on “any suggestion” that Trump “isn’t successfully eradicating terrorist criminal gangs” (NYT)
Guatemala and Honduras Deny Agreeing to Safe Third-Country Agreement
According to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Trump administration signed an agreement with Guatemala and Honduras to offer refuge to people aiming to seek asylum in the United States; Honduras’ immigration director and Guatemala’s presidential communications office denied signing such an agreement (AP)
El Salvador Detains Anti-Corruption Lawyer
Authorities detained lawyer Ruth López on Sunday night, her organization Cristosal said; López has gained prominence for accusing the Nayib Bukele administration of corruption; the Americas director of Human Rights Watch called the detention an escalation in the Bukele administration’s “effort to silence dissent” (NYT)
The Salvadoran attorney general’s office said in a social media post that López stole government money (NPR)
El Salvador Journalists Flee
Three members of the top independent investigative news site in El Salvador fled the country this month amid reports the government might be preparing to arrest them; the Salvadoran presidential commissioner for freedom of expression said he did not know if there were arrest warrants against the journalists and that reporters can “say whatever they want” as long as they do not commit crimes (WaPo)
Their outlet, El Faro, reported on alleged deals between President Nayib Bukele and the country’s gangs (El Faro)
Guatemala Extradites Suspected Leader of Los Huistas Cartel to U.S.
Mexican and U.S. officials arrested Aler Baldomero Samayoa-Recinos, who goes by the alias of “Chicharra,” during a raid in Mexico in March, after which they deported him to Guatemala for questioning; Samayoa-Recinos was arrested on charges of trafficking cocaine to the United States and allegedly led the Los Huistas, one of Guatemala’s most notorious criminal organizations (CBS/AFP)
U.S. Embassy in Honduras Warns of Mass Shooting Threat
The U.S. Embassy cited information of heightened mass shooting threats at several locations in Tegucigalpa, such as a school and mall; the Honduran government stated that it will investigate the embassy’s claims (Reuters)
Bukele Proposes Prisonner Swap With Venezuela
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele suggested a “humanitarian agreement” in a social media post that would exchange 252 Venezuelans in Salvadoran prison for 252 Venezuelan political prisoners; Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office called Bukele’s statements “cynical” but asked for details about the Venezuelan detainees in Salvadoran custody, most of which had been expelled from the United States in recent weeks (AP)
U.S. Senator Gains Access to Abrego Garcia in El Salvador
After being previously stopped by military officials, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met yesterday with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who the Trump administration acknowledged it had wrongly expelled to El Salvador; Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia, whom he said had been “totally beyond reach” after his transfer to a Salvadoran prison (NYT)
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele posted on social media that Abrego Garcia would remain in El Salvador’s custody (The Hill)
U.S. Senator Blocked From Visiting Abrego Garcia
Salvadoran authorities denied Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) access yesterday to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had lived in Maryland before the United States mistakenly transferred him to a Salvadoran prison; El Salvador’s vice president said Abrego Garcia was not being released because Washington was paying for him to be incarcerated, according to Van Hollen (Reuters)
Bukele Refuses to Return Man the United States Wrongfully Transferred to Salvadoran Prison
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Donald Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland resident with legal protection from removal—after the administration acknowledged it had erroneously transferred him to El Salvador (AP)
But both Bukele and the Trump administration argued that they were powerless to return Abrego Garcia (CBS)
In a step beyond simply accepting deportees from the United States, El Salvador has also accepted migrant detainees who had no chance to contest their removal in court; typically, migrants in the United States are allowed legal defense before deportation (Politico)
Trump has praised Bukele for accepting the detainees, saying that he is “taking care of a lot of problems that we have;” Trump said he was exploring sending U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to prison in El Salvador if it were legal—something law experts have contested (CNN)
United States Transfers Seventeen Alleged Members of Crime Groups Tren de Aragua and MS-13 to El Salvador
A State Department spokesperson declined to say what legal authority was used for the transfers (Reuters)
Families and attorneys of some Venezuelans previously sent to El Salvador have contested claims that they were Tren de Aragua members; court papers show that some were accused of gang membership based on factors such as having tattoos (NYT)
Trump Administration Invokes Wartime Powers in 1798 Alien Enemies Act to Carry Out Migrant Deportations to El Salvador
A presidential proclamation invoking the Act for alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang was used to transfer 137 people to El Salvador, an unnamed White House official told the Washington Post(WaPo)
Also on Saturday, a U.S. judge ordered a temporary halt to the use of the Act for deportations (NPR)
Deportation planes were in the air at the time of the ruling; the judge verbally instructed them to turn around, but they did not (AP)
The White House press secretary said the order was issued after the migrants “had already been removed from U.S. territory” (Reuters)
Rubio Strikes Migrant Deportation Deal in Guatemala
In Guatemala City, Rubio and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced an agreement that expands the number of deportation flights and nationalities of deportees the country accepts from the United States (AP)
El Salvador offered a similar agreement during Rubio’s stop there on Tuesday (AP)
El Salvador’s Government Offers to Hold Deported Migrants of Any Nationality and U.S. Citizens Convicted of Crimes in Its Detention Facilities
President Nayib Bukele made the proposal during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (CNN)
The United States cannot legally deport its citizens to El Salvador; an unnamed U.S. official told reporters that the Trump administration was not currently planning to do so but called Bukele’s offer significant (NPR)
United States Looks to Continue Deportations to Northern Triangle
U.S. President Trump is seeking a “safe third country” deal with El Salvador that could see the latter accept migrants from other Latin American countries, such as suspected affiliates of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang (CBS)
Guatemalan migrants were also deported to their country of origin this week (Reuters)
El Salvador Announces Record-Low Homicides For 2024
The country had 114 homicides last year, the attorney general’s office said; that puts it at a lower homicide rate than any Latin American country that published its data for 2023 (AP)
One of President Nayib Bukele’s flagship policies has been sweeping detentions of those suspected of involvement in organized crime (The Guardian)
Guatemala Arrests Thirty-Six People in Probe of Migrant Trafficking Ring
The ring bribed police officers to guarantee the passage of migrants, Guatemala’s interior minister posted; a Guatemalan prosecutor said the network had moved migrants from countries including China, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Russia, Venezuela, and Vietnam (AFP)
Bukele, Milei Meet in Argentina
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is due to meet with Argentine President Javier Milei today in Buenos Aires; Milei has expressed admiration in the past for Bukele’s crackdown on crime (Buenos Aires Herald)
U.S. Judge Sentences Former Honduran President to Forty-Five Years
Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández’s sentence for cocaine trafficking and related charges concluded a rare case of a foreign leader being prosecuted in the United States; Hernández was extradited to the United States soon after he left office in 2022 (WSJ)
Argentina and El Salvador Sign Security Agreement to Toughen Fight Against Organized Crime
The agreement comes during Argentinian Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s four-day visit to El Salvador, during which she studied El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s security policies to counteract violent gangs; a joint press release issued by the two governments said that the agreement would formulate strategies aimed to “effectively fight criminal groups” (Buenos Aires Times)