US Deports Hundreds of Venezuelans to Supermax Prison despite Court Order | BBC News

Mar 17, 2025 | More than 200 Venezuelans, alleged by the White House to be gang members, have been deported from the US to a super maximum-security prison in El Salvador, even as a US judge blocked the removals.

A group of 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the international MS-13 gang were sent to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot).

Neither the US government nor El Salvador has identified the detainees, nor provided details of their alleged criminality or gang membership.

Meanwhile, the White House has denied an accusation from rights groups that it flouted due process by defying a judge's order while carrying out deportations at the weekend.


Related article here.

Venezuelan Families Fear for Relatives as Trump Celebrates Deportations

THE NEW TORK TIMES: The news that hundreds of migrants were headed to an El Salvador prison caused panic for some Venezuelans, who worried that their loved ones might be among them.

A screenshot taken from this article. | The government of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, has denounced the United States’ deportation of 238 Venezuelans accused of gang membership to El Salvador.Credit...Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press
Mirelis Casique’s 24-year-old son last spoke to her on Saturday morning from a detention center in Laredo, Texas. He told her he was going to be deported with a group of other Venezuelans, she said, but he didn’t know where they were headed.

Shortly after, his name disappeared from the website of the U.S. immigration authorities. She has not heard from him since.

“Now he’s in an abyss with no one to rescue him,” Ms. Casique said on Sunday in an interview from her home in Venezuela.

The deportation of 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador this weekend has created panic among families who fear that their relatives are among those handed over by the Trump administration to the Salvadoran authorities, apparently without due process.

The men were described by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, as “terrorists” belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. She called them “heinous monsters” who had recently been arrested, “saving countless American lives.” But several relatives of men believed to be in the group say their loved ones do not have gang ties.

On Sunday, the Salvadoran government released images of the men being marched into a notorious mega-prison in handcuffs overnight, with their heads newly shaven. » | Annie Correal | Reporting from Mexico City | Sunday, March 16, 2025

When one reads horrific stories like this, the concentration camps in Hitler’s Germany spring to mind. What on earth is happening to the America we all once loved? – © Mark Alexander

US to Send Migrants & Criminals to El Salvador's Mega Prison? | Vantage with Palki Sharma

Tue, Feb 4, 2025 | El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, has made an unprecedented offer to the US. He has offered to take in undocumented migrants in the US, no matter their country of origin. He has also offered to put convicted American criminals in El Salvador's Mega Prison. Bukele has overseen a sharp fall in gang crime in El Salvador. But arbitrary arrests, custodial torture and extrajudicial killings have been on the rise. Will the US send its criminals to a Black Site in El Salvador? Will Bukele's Mega Prison become the new Guantanamo Bay?

Trump Says He Would Jail Americans in El Salvador ‘in a Heartbeat’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The proposal is almost certainly illegal, experts said, but President Trump’s eagerness to entertain it showed his willingness to embrace extreme measures to demonstrate he is tough on crime.

A screenshot taken from this article in today’s New York Times. | For President Trump, even musing over the proposal signaled his willingness to embrace extreme measures to show he is tough on crime and illegal immigration. | Eric Lee/The New York Times
President Trump said on Tuesday that he was open to an offer by El Salvador’s president to jail convicted criminals, including American citizens, in the Central American nation’s notorious “megaprison.”

“If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Mr. Trump said.

He almost surely does not have the legal right to do it, legal experts say, and any attempt to carry out President Nayib Bukele’s plan would probably be challenged in court.

But Mr. Bukele’s proposal to essentially turn El Salvador into a penal colony for the United States showed how far he is willing to go to define himself as Mr. Trump’s primary ally in a region that the American president has disparaged. And for Mr. Trump, even musing over the proposal signaled his willingness to embrace extreme measures to show he is tough on crime and illegal immigration.

“It’s quite extraordinary and unprecedented and alarming in many ways,” said Michael E. Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue research institute in Washington. “I know a lot of experts have raised questions about the constitutionality and legality of this deal, but Bukele is a leader who has absolute power in El Salvador and it seems Trump seems to be moving in a similar direction in trying to reduce or eliminate any checks on his power.” » | Zolan Kanno-Youngs | Reporting from Washington | Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Trump needs no Heinrich Himmler when he’s got Marco Rubio to sort things out for him! – © Mark Alexander

A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency. The Bet Isn’t Paying Off.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: It brought El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, the adulation of the tech community, but reduced scarce funds and moved the nation closer to default.

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador at an event in June to mark his third year in office.Credit...Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Bitcoin was meant to transform El Salvador’s economy, catapulting the poor Central American nation into an unlikely harbinger of a financial revolution.

But nearly a year after the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, shocked the financial world by making its most popular digital coin a national currency, his bet appears to be backfiring, highlighting the gap between the utopian promises of cryptocurrency’s proponents and economic realities.

The government’s bitcoin holdings have lost about 60 percent of their presumed value during the recent market plunge. The use of bitcoin among Salvadorans has collapsed and the country is running out of cash after Mr. Bukele failed to raise fresh funds from cryptocurrency investors. » | Anatoly Kurmanaev and Bryan Avelar | Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Bitcoin: Will El Salvador's Big Crypto Gamble Pay Off? – BBC News

Jun 18, 2022 • The falling value of Bitcoin is affecting investors all over the world.

It’s putting increased pressure on the Central American state of El Salvador, which nine months ago made cryptocurrency legal tender. As legal tender it should be accepted in all shops, you can now buy almost anything in Bitcoin, from pizza to real estate.

The government has encouraged people to use Bitcoin by giving $30 to each person who signs up for a government-sponsored Bitcoin wallet – and offering treatment for pets at a cost of just 25 cents for those who pay in Bitcoin.

But aside from some pockets of enthusiasm, people do not seem to be embracing the cryptocurrency as much as their Bitcoin-loving president who is under increasing criticism for investing so much public money in the project.

Adoption of Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador Is Seen as Unwise by 77% of Residents

THE RIO TIMES: Last June 9, the Legislative Assembly approved the Bitcoin Law, which gives legal tender to this crypto-asset together with the US dollar.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador is seen as a poor or unwise decision by 77.5% of the population, according to a university survey released this Thursday.

The Centro de Estudios Ciudadanos (CEC) survey of the Universidad Francisco Gavidia (UFG) shows that 24 % consider the decision as not correct and 53.5 % as not correct at all. In comparison, 12.9 % say it is correct and 6.5 % very correct.

Last June 9, the Legislative Assembly approved the Bitcoin Law, which gives legal tender to this crypto-asset together with the US dollar.

The initiative, which does not include other cryptocurrencies or the underlying projects, was approved with the votes of 62 of the 84 deputies in the Parliament, with a large majority of the ruling party, without further debate or parliamentary discussion.

The measure, which generated doubts among local banks and the population due to the limited information disclosed by the Government, will come into force next September 9. » | Latin America News | Friday, July 9, 2021

More El Salvador news here »

Marxist Muricio Funes Is New President of El Salvador
Mauricio Funes and wife Vanda Pignato as he declares victory. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: A party of former Marxist guerillas has gained power in El Salvador, bringing an end to 20 years of conservative rule.

Mauricio Funes, leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), declared himself President late on Sunday night as early counting gave him 51.2 per cent of the vote with more than 90 percent of ballots counted. Shortly afterwards his rival, the right-wing candidate Rodrigo Avila, conceded defeat

"I'm the president-elect of the Salvadorans," Mr Funes told a news conference as jubilant supporters, dressed in red, poured on to the streets of San Salvador cheering and waving FMLN flags. "This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador's greatest hope."

The FMLN and the military government fought a bloody 12-year civil war between 1980 and 1992 in which 75,000 people died. The FMLN's victory will place El Salvador firmly on the Latin American left-of-centre axis led by President Chávez of Venezuela.

Although Mr Funes, 49, has promised unity, the rise to power of the FMLN will be watched closely by Washington, already unnerved by the "pink tide" sweeping Central America. >>> Anne Barrowclough | Monday, March 16, 2009

WELT ONLINE: Linkskandidat wird neuer Präsident in El Salvador

Mauricio Funes hat die Präsidentenwahl in El Salvador aller Voraussicht nach gewonnen. Der Kandidat der linken Befreiungsfront FMLN erklärte sich zum Sieger der als historisch bezeichneten Wahl. Funes versprach Frieden für das Land, andere warnen vor Kommunismus und dem Einfluss Kubas.

Der Kandidat der linken Befreiungsfront FMLN, Mauricio Funes hat nach Auszählung von mehr als 90 Prozent der Stimmen die Präsidentenwahl in El Salvador gewonnen. Der 49-Jährige erreichte bei der als historisch bezeichneten Wahl 51 Prozent der Stimmen. Sein Gegner von der Regierungspartei Arena, Rodrigo Ávila (44) brachte es auf 48 Prozent.

Damit muss die rechte Arena-Partei zum ersten Mal seit rund 20 Jahren in die Opposition. Mehr als 4000 nationale und internationale Beobachter waren im Einsatz, darunter mehrere Dutzend aus Europa. Schwerwiegende Zwischenfälle wurden nicht gemeldet.

Funes erklärte sich am Abend zum Wahlsieger, noch ehe die Oberste Wahlbehörde das offizielle Ergebnis mitgeteilte hatte. Er wandte sich an die Nation und versprach, er wolle dem von Bürgerkrieg und sozialen Gegensätzen gespaltenen Land endlich den Frieden bringen. „Ich möchte zum Präsidenten des Friedens und des Wiederaufbaus werden“, rief er den jubelnden Anhängern zu. „El Salvador gehört uns allen.“ >>> dpa/lk | Montag, 16. März 2009

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