El Salvador wants to detain deportees, including U.S. citizens, in notorious 'tropical gulag' terror prison
El Salvador wants to detain deportees, including U.S. citizens, in notorious 'tropical gulag' terror prison
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Facility has been accused of inhumane conditions, torture, and arbitrary detention. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited El Salvador and its president Nayib Bukele on Monday as part of a Central American tour. Rubio called the highly unorthodox and potentially illegal scheme an “act of extraordinary friendship to our country.”. The following day, Rubio continued to praise the “generous offer,” though he admitted “there are legalities involved” that might hinder the idea.
Cells have no sheets, pillows, or mattresses, and inmates are held inside them for 23.5 hours a day, with the lights turned on 24/7. Human rights officials have accused the facility of scores of abuses, part of a larger campaign against crime that’s seen Bukele and his allies suspend constitutional rights including due process as part of a 2022 state of emergency that remains ongoing. Investigators from Human Rights Watch said last year they were aware of “deaths in custody, finding evidence of potential torture, ill-treatment, and failure to provide necessary medical care” inside the facility.
El Salvadorian human rights organization Cristosal found last year that at least 261 people had died in the country’s prisons since the 2022 emergency began. Such hard-line tactics seem to be part of the appeal for the Trump administration and its allies, despite Secretary Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, being a longtime critic of oppressive Latin American regimes. An X post from Bukele about the prisoner deal showed slick promotional images of the prison, featuring shirtless prisoners with tattoos kneeling before heavily armored prison guards.
