Shortly after Donald Trump’s government deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador this weekend, Salvadoran President Nayib Bikele published a three -minute video on social networks. In the recording you can see men with shackles who came down from a plane with a dramatic electronic soundtrack and entered prison, where they quickly quickly.
Bukele also made fun of the US judge who ordered the flights suspended, publishing on the social network X: “Oh … too late”, with a laughter of laughter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the video, just like Elon Musk. Trump thanked Bukele on the Internet, saying: “We will not forget!”
The role of El Salvador in the deportation strategy of the Trump government points out a new world power and visibility level for Bukele, who became president at 37 in 2019 and was re -elected by a large majority last year.
He has become the most popular leader in Latin America for his fight against gangs, although he suspended fundamental civil liberties and has been accused by US prosecutors of secretly negotiating with those same gangs. Now it is positioning itself as a crucial regional ally for Trump.
The “most cool dictator” in the world
Bukele uses social networks to project an elegant and casual image – often with a baseball cap and aviator glasses – and to respond to criticism for their political iron against crime and violence.
In the spring of 2022, after an increase in the violence of gangs in El Salvador, the government imposed a state of exception that has been maintained since then. Bukele empowered the police and the military forces to carry out mass arrests that, according to human rights groups, have stopped without due process to people who do not have links with gangs.
Many of the 85,000 Salvadorans detained have disappeared in the prison system, held for years without trial and without their families knowing if they are alive.
Bukele has also been accused of undermining democratic institutions. He has accepted criticism, referring to himself as the “most cool dictator in the world.”
To your hard hand image against crime, the videos and photos of great production that your government disseminates regularly are added. Men without handcuff or prisoners appear in them working in conditions similar to those of a factory. And often include images of the controversial center for confinement of terrorism, known as CECOT, a huge enclosure that can house up to 40,000 inmates.
An alliance with Trump
Bukele adoption of emergency security powers and its promotion of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency have won praise in Trump’s intimate circle.
Recently he met with Musk on a Tesla plant in Texas.
Last month, Bukele took Rubio to a visit to the presidential residence on the outskirts of San Salvador. Afterwards, Rubio announced that Bukele had offered to host deportees of any nationality, including Americans, already host them in the CECOT, prior payment.
In that group, said Rubio, would be included “any illegal foreigner in the United States that is a criminal of any nationality, either from the MS-13 or the Aragua train”, the Salvadoran and Venezuelan gangs.
A White House spokeswoman said Monday that El Salvador would receive 6 million dollars for hosting the Venezuelan deportees, from whom the US government said they were members of the Aragua train, without offering evidence or the names of the detainees.
The deportation sowed the panic among Venezuelan families, who feared that their relatives were among the people who were delivered to the Salvadoran authorities.
Bring members of the MS-13 back
The day after the announcement of Rubio, the Salvadoran ambassador to Washington, Milena Mayorga, said Bukele had asked to include leaders of the MS-13 among those deported to El Salvador: “It was an issue of honor.”
“The president was blunt and told Rubio: I want them to send me to the gang leaders in the United States,” said Mayorga.
Among the deportees were also two Salvadorans described by Rubio as “dangerous senior leaders of the MS-13”.
Bukele’s relationship with the MS-13-which began in El Salvador but has spread through Latin America and the United States-is complicated.
During the government of Joe Biden, the Department of Justice accused Bukele and his government of secretly negotiating a pact with certain leaders of the gang: in exchange for helping to reduce homicide figures, Salvadoran officials offered them privileges between bars, the department said.
The Department of Justice said that senior Salvadoran officials also helped an MS-13 chief escape from the country, although the United States had requested its extradition.
In 2021, the Department of Treasury imposed sanctions against Salvadoran government officials for granting favors to gang leaders. Bukele, and some members of his government, were mentioned in US accusations against MS-13 leaders.
Bukele has denied having made deals with gang leaders.
Although their popularity has shot, some analysts claim that the Salvadoran leader can fear losing his control of power if his alleged collaboration with the gang leaders would fully come to light.
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Bukele said that the deportees would be held for at least one year and forced to carry out work and attend workshops within the framework of a plan called “Zero Leisure.”
When announcing the arrival of this weekend flights, the president described them as “the first.”