Trump Set to Send 300 Venezuelan Criminals to El Salvador Mega-Prison
The agreement between the two countries came after weeks of negotiations between Marco Rubio and President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele during an event in El Salvador/ Marvin Recinos.
Donald Trump reached an agreement with El Salvador to send 300 Venezuelan criminals, all of them members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA), to its famous mega-prison for a period of one year. The news was confirmed by a memorandum prepared by El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to which Associated Press had access.
Negotiations between the two countries went on for some weeks, with Marco Rubio being the Trump Administration's interlocutor. The Secretary of State reached an agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to send the criminals in exchange for 6 million dollars. Their stay in the Central American country will initially last one year. The cost per offender is $20,000 and the State Department could pay another $15 million to send more members of the Venezuelan gang.
"The Republic of El Salvador confirms it will house these individuals for one (1) year, pending the United States’ decision on their long term disposition," reads the aforementioned memorandum.
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"The Salvadoran memo also confirmed the country would take two men it said were members of the MS-13 gang, an organization that was initially comprised of Salvadoran migrants to the U.S. and had gained an increasing foothold in El Salvador prior to Bukele’s crackdown," added from the aforementioned media outlet.
In early February, President Trump mentioned the possibility of sending US criminals to El Salvador as well, although White House lawyers should first study the legality of the transfer.
"We have horrible criminals, horrible people. (...) If we can get them out of our country, we have other countries that would have them. There’s no difference to our prision system except that it would be a lot less expensive and would be a great deterrent... to send them to other countries. (...) If we can go a step further, in other words, we are talking about getting the criminals out of our country that come in through other countries illegally. Well, we have people that are just as bad as them. So, if we can get them out, I would be very happy," the president noted at the time.
White House Ties Aragua Train to Nicolás Maduro
"TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking.," the White House said in a statement.
"TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States," they added.
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