U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in El Salvador on Monday to promote migration and security policy with President Nayib Bukele, an ally of Donald Trump. In the second stop, after Panama, of his first trip as U.S. chief diplomat, Rubio could propose to Bukele, who enjoys great popularity for his war against gangs, the possibility of El Salvador receiving deported criminals.
“Just a decade ago, San Salvador was the world crime capital, and today it’s one of the safest cities in the world,” recently said Mauricio Claver-Carone, U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America, who also praised Bukele as “a great ally in migration matters.” Trump ended the temporary protected status enjoyed by more than 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States, which prevented their deportation due to the crisis in the turbulent South American country.
A U.S. envoy met last week with Venezuela’s leftist president, Nicolás Maduro, and demanded that he receive deported Venezuelans, including members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang that Trump has designated as a terrorist group. “They (Tren de Aragua members) will want to return to Venezuela before dealing with gang prisons in El Salvador,” Claver-Carone stated.
Panama, which Rubio visited on Sunday, also promised greater cooperation in deporting migrants from other nations, an effort it hopes will help reduce tension caused by Trump’s threat to seize the Panama Canal. Before departing for El Salvador, Rubio observed in Panama City a deportation flight of Colombians detained while crossing the Darién jungle en route to the United States.
“If they reach the southern border of the United States, they create serious problems for us,” he told reporters as Panamanian authorities boarded 32 men and 11 women onto the Colombia-bound plane.
Ally of Trump’s Agenda
On good terms with Bukele, the Trump administration has not yet touched the status protecting about 232,000 Salvadorans in the United States from deportation. On the eve of Rubio’s visit, Bukele praised Trump’s effort to dismantle U.S. foreign aid. “It’s not only beneficial for the United States, it’s also a great victory for the rest of the world,” Bukele wrote in English on his X account.
Bukele repeated the arguments of billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s friend, and right-wing populists that U.S. aid primarily goes to funding opposition groups, including NGOs. El Salvador received about $138 million in U.S. aid in fiscal year 2023, led by support for government and civil society and basic education, according to U.S. official figures.
Human rights groups criticize Bukele because his security policy is based on a state of exception that, since March 2022, allows arrests without judicial orders. Bukele acknowledges that of the 83,000 people who have been detained, about 8,000 had to be released for being innocent, but he enjoys wide popularity and was re-elected last year with more than 80% of the votes.
Among the guests at his inauguration were the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Tucker Carlson, the right-wing populist journalist close to Trump. But Bukele may still need to reassure Trump.
In his speech at last year’s Republican nomination convention, Trump unexpectedly criticized Bukele, claiming he had reduced crime by “sending his killers to the United States.”
