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El Salvador offers to take in US criminals and migrants El Salvador offers to lock up US criminals in its mega-jail
(about 5 hours later)
Marco Rubio met El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque El Salvador has offered to lock up US criminals in its huge maximum-security prison complex
El Salvador has offered to take in "dangerous criminals" held in American jails - including those with US citizenship, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says. El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US, including those with US citizenship, and house them in its mega-jail.
After meeting President Nayib Bukele on a visit to the Central American country, Rubio said the US was "profoundly grateful", adding that "no country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this". The deal was announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American nation.
El Salvador will also accept for deportation migrants of any nationality who are criminals and in the US unlawfully, the secretary of state said. Bukele - whose iron-fist approach to gangs has won him plaudits from voters but been heavily criticised by human rights groups - said he had offered the US "the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system".
Rubio has praised Bukele for his policies on gang violence which have dramatically reduced crime rates in El Salvador - once the murder capital of the world - but have been criticised by human rights groups. Rubio said the US was "profoundly grateful" to Bukele, adding that "no country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this".
Rubio told reporters: "He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency."Rubio told reporters: "He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency."
"We are profoundly grateful. I spoke to President Trump about this earlier today," he said. Referring to two of the region's most notorious transnational crime gangs, Rubio added that El Salvador would also take in deported migrants and "criminals from any nationality, be the MS-13 or Tren de Aragua".
Rubio is on his first overseas tour as the US top diplomat, and has been seeking to assert the Trump administration's priorities in the region, including demanding that Panama make "immediate changes" to what he calls the "influence and control" of China over the Panama Canal. Bukele later confirmed the offer on X, specifying that "we are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee".
Rubio said Bukele was willing to take back citizens from El Salvador as well as migrants from other countries, and appeared to suggest the focus would be on Latin American gang members - such as MS-13 or Tren de Aragua. He added that "the fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison sustainable".
Since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has focused on speeding up the removal of unlawful migrants, with the promise of "mass deportations". Since he came into office in 2019, Bukele has made cracking down on crime his government's priority.
In allied moves, more active duty troops have been sent to fortify the US-Mexico border and the president has sought to halt the processing of migrants and asylum seekers via an executive order. The newly built maximum-security jail he referred to, Cecot [Terrorism Confinement Centre], is at the centre of his drive to lock up and punish the most violent gang members.
Bukele suggested to reporters that his offer on prisons went further than a 2019 agreement on accepting migrants. The government celebrated the opening of the jail - which it says can hold up to 40,000 inmates - by releasing photos and videos of shaven-headed and tattooed prisoners stripped down to the waist being frogmarched along its corridors.
And in a post on X, he said he had offered the US an opportunity to "outsource part of its prison system". Watch: Rare video shows El Salvador inmates in their cells in megajail
"We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison... in exchange for a fee." The treatment of inmates at Cecot, where up to 80 prisoners are locked up in each windowless cells, has been criticised by rights groups.
Bukele, a former mayor of the capital, San Salvador, first won power in 2019 on a pledge to create a "new era" for El Salvador, take on gang violence and corruption and foster better relations with the US. But Bukele's crackdown on crime continues to be very popular with the vast majority of Salvadoreans who say they can go about their lives without threats from gang members for the first time in years.
He saw his popularity soar after launching a crackdown on crime and gangs, turning El Salvador from the murder capital of the world into one of the region's safest countries. However, some relatives of the tens of thousands of people which have been rounded up and jailed under emergency measures brought in by Bukele say their loved ones have been wrongfully rounded up in sweeping police round-ups.
His government carried out sweeping arrests of anyone suspected of being involved in gang activity during his first term in office. Amnesty International has criticised the "gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence" in the country - a criticism dismissed by Bukele, who points out that his hardline approach to crime last February won him re-election to a second term with more than 84% of the votes.
An estimated 75,000 people have been arrested under emergency measures that have been repeatedly extended, alarming human rights groups. El Salvador was the second stop on Secretary of State Rubio's first overseas tour as the US top diplomat.
Amnesty International criticised the "gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence" in the country. His first stop was Panama, where he demanded that Panama make "immediate changes" to what he called the "influence and control" of China over the Panama Canal.
On Tuesday, he will hold meetings with officials in Costa Rica and Guatemala expected to focus on migration as well as countering Chinese influence in the region.
Since coming to office, US President Donald Trump has focused on speeding up the removal of undocumented migrants, with the promise of "mass deportations".