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ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

I was wondering how much the US government was paying El Salvador to hold the Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being dangerous gang members.

$6 million — for the weekend

That’s the president of El Salvador laughing with Trump in the image, by the way. Apparently, he is good friends with Trump, , and Rubio (the US Secretary of State).

/1

wsj.com/world/americas/the-lat

Nayib Bukele with President Trump in 2019 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. (PHOTO: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS) The U.S. government is paying Bukele's government $6 million to take the deportees over the weekend, the White House said. "That is pennies on the dollar in comparison to the cost it would impose on the American taxpayer to house these terrorists in maximum-security prisons here," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Monday. She said the Trump administration encourages illegal immigrants to "self deport" to "save https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 March 17, 2025
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ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

Per the article, “Bukele (the El Salvadorian president) described the deportation agreement as a way for the U.S. to “outsource part of its prison system” to El Salvador’s mega-prison for a “relatively low” fee.

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#USA#immigration#deportation
ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

Okay, here are the screenshots.

The president of El Salvador mocks his country’s judiciary and defied its constitution by running for another term.

He calls himself the “coolest dictator.”

/3

~ The Latin American Leader Helping Trump Deport Venezuelans:

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is aiding the U.S. effort by opening his country’s prison facilities to deportees

The Latin American Leader Helping Trump Deport Venezuelans Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is aiding the U.S. effort by opening his country's prison facilities to deportees By Vera Bergengruen (Follow, Juan Forero Follow and Kejal Vyas (Follow) March 17, 2025 at 5:18 pm ET https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has defied a constitutional ban on re-election, winning another term in 2024 with 84% of the vote. PHOTO: MARVIN RECINOS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele became a MAGA icon with a crackdown on violent crime that locked up tens of thousands of gang members after imposing a state of emergency that suspended civil and constitutional rights. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
MAGA icon with a crackdown on violent crime that locked up tens of thousands of gang members after imposing a state of emergency that suspended civil and constitutional rights. Now, the former advertising executive is President Trump's main Latin American ally in carrying out mass deportations of Venezuelans and Salvadorans that the U.S. asserted were criminal gang members. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
On Saturday, the Salvadoran government accepted three planes carrying 238 Venezuelans accused of being members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, along with another 23 men alleged to belong to El Salvador's nearly extinct MS-13 gang. A U.S. federal judge tried to halt the flights, but senior administration officials, after huddling over what to do about the judge's emergency order, opted to go ahead, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. "Oopsie...too late," Bukele posted about the judge's ruling on X with a laughing emoji, a message that was reposted by a White House official who shared it with a meme that said "Boom!" https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
Mar 17, 2025, 11:54 PM·Public
2boosts·0favorites
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ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

/4
(more screenshots)

~ The Latin American Leader Helping Trump Deport Venezuelans:

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is aiding the U.S. effort by opening his country’s prison facilities to deportees ~

With Bukele's acceptance of the deported migrants, all of whom were jailed in the country's maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, the 43-year-old leader has cemented himself as a trusted partner for Trump in a region that is bristling at the way the U.S. is handling deportations. Trump's plans depend in part on third countries to take in flights of people expelled from the U.S., among them Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama, sometimes after pressure by the U.S. "He's good friends with Trump and Musk and Rubio-all the different factions within the Trump administration," said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Washington policy group Inter-American Dialogue. "Everyone likes Bukele. There are no dissenting voices." https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
Bukele doesn't need pressure to take in migrants. He is a full-throated advocate of Trump's approach. Bukele touted his country's acceptance of the migrants in a social-media video, shot with drones and set to cinematic music, showing Salvadoran soldiers and police marching deportees off the planes and taking them to prison. Bukele on X said the operation was "advancing the fight against organized crime" while forging an alliance with Washington. Trump praised Bukele on his Truth Social account. "We will not forget!" the president said. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
El Salvador's cooperation was laid out in a cozy February meeting at the Salvadoran president's lake house with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Standing next to Rubio on his deck in aviator sunglasses, a clearly elated Bukele hinted that he would soon announce an agreement "that is unprecedented not only in the history of relations between the U.S. and El Salvador, but also Latin America." Later that evening, Rubio announced that Bukele had offered to house deportees of all nationalities, including American criminals, in the CECOT, as the large correctional facility is also known. Bukele described the deportation agreement as a way for the U.S. to "outsource part of its prison system" to El Salvador's mega-prison for a "relatively low" fee. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
In doing so, he has echoed Trump's language in January, when the president floated the idea of a penal colony where U.S. criminals could be "brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee." Some legal experts say housing American prisoners in a foreign facility would be unconstitutional. The transfer of Venezuelans to El Salvador drew rebuke from Venezuela's authoritarian government, which has been a fierce rival of Bukele. Jorge Rodríguez, a senior aide to Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, on Monday urged his countrymen not to travel to the U.S. More than eight million Venezuelans have fled Maduro's reign amid economic contraction and political repression. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
#USA#immigration#deportation
Public
ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

/5
(more screenshots)

~ The Latin American Leader Helping Trump Deport Venezuelans:

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is aiding the U.S. effort by opening his country’s prison facilities to deportees ~

"It's not a safe country in the current moment," Rodriguez said of the U.S. "In the United States of America there is no rule of law with regards to the human rights that our migrants should have." Photo Nayib Bukele (laughing) with President Trump in 2019 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. PHOTO: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS The U.S. government is paying Bukele's government $6 million to take the deportees over the weekend, the White House said. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
"That is pennies on the dollar in comparison to the cost it would impose on the American taxpayer to house these terrorists in maximum-security prisons here," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Monday. She said the Trump administration encourages illegal immigrants to "self deport" to "save themselves from being in one of these fun videos" posted by Bukele. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
Once a nightclub owner who cut his teeth at his family's advertising firm, Bukele became mayor of the capital for the dominant leftist political movement, the FMLN, before launching New Ideas, his own political party, and becoming El Salvador's youngest president by 2019. Seeking to transform a country of 6 million that had long lived on remittances sent by Salvadorans in the U.S., Bukele adopted bitcoin as legal tender in his bid to make El Salvador a regional hub for tech and crypto— a Central American Singapore, he said. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
But what has made him wildly popular was his hard-line crusade that has led to the detention of more than 80,000 suspected gang members. Criminal groups had long made El Salvador a murder capital and stunted economic growth while driving compatriots to migrate to the U.S. Business has begun to flourish in town plazas and street markets where gangs and extortion had prevailed. Photo--The mega-prison where the leader of El Salvador has offered to house deportees. PHOTO: SALVADOR MELENDEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
#USA#immigration#deportation
Public
ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊

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(end of screenshots)

~ The Latin American Leader Helping Trump Deport Venezuelans:

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is aiding the U.S. effort by opening his country’s prison facilities to deportees ~

To push through his measures, Bukele strengthened his hold on the state, taking control over the judiciary and legislature. Bukele has defied a constitutional ban on re- election, winning another term in 2024 with 84% of the votes. Polls show his approval ratings remain above 80%. On X, Bukele mocks his critics by calling himself the world's "coolest dictator." Rights groups say citizens have been rounded up without due process and remain behind bars three years after the start of the anti- gang campaign. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
Each month since March 2022, Bukele's allies in Congress have renewed an emergency decree that suspends civil liberties allowing authorities to arrest anyone they suspect of gang ties. Many families of detainees say their loved ones were swept up just for having tattoos. Noah Bullock, director of the Salvadoran rights group Cristosal, which has documented the unexplained deaths of 377 prisoners, said there is no way to know about the guilt or innocence of those held. The same, he added, could be said of the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador. "What judge is responsible for determining the rights of these people?" he said. "They have not been convicted of anything." Write to Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com, Juan Forero at juan.forero@wsj.com and Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-latin-american-leader-helping-trump-deport-venezuelans-0e85f7a3 Accessed: 17 March 2025 at 1745 MST
#USA#immigration#deportation
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