The US Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, visited the maximum security prison of El Salvador, where more than 200 Venezuelans deported by the Government of Donald Trump are held.
After its arrival to El Salvador, the first scale of a Latin American tour, Noem immediately moved to the terrorism confinement center (CECOT), the megacárcel where the 238 Venezuelans sent on March 16 remain as part of a controversial collaboration between the Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele, and Trump.
The official observed the inmates, without shirts, after the bars of their cells in this strongly protected prison, considered the largest in Latin America.
“If you commit a crime, this is a consequence that you can face,” said Noem outside a cell where several inmates, apparently Salvadorans, showed tattoos in the body.
Subsequently, in his account on Network X, he wrote: President Trump and I have a clear message for illegal criminal immigrants: Go now. If you are not leaving, we will hunt, we will arrest you and you could end up in this Salvadoran prison.
Washington said that Venezuelans are members of the Criminal Band Train of Aragua and invoked a law of 1798 to justify their deportation. However, relatives and the Government of Caracas say that it is only undocumented migrants.
The Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, accompanied Noem during the visit to the prison, located in a rural area of Tecoluca, southeast of the country. This penitentiary center has a strict regime, without family visits.
After leaving the Cecot, Noem went to the presidential house, in San Salvador, where he held a meeting with Bukele to treat the increase in deportation flights and the expulsion of violent criminals, as advanced by the official.
After El Salvador, Noem’s tour will include Colombia and Mexico.
The CECOT has electrified walls and capacity for 40 thousand inmates. Until now it houses about 15,000 alleged members of the MS-13 local gangs and neighborhood 18.
Judicial setback for Trump
Before starting his tour, Noem declared that with the deportation of Venezuelans to El Salvador, the message that the United States is no longer a safe refuge for violent criminals was sent to the world.
However, human rights organizations argue that deported Venezuelans are not criminals.
“There are growing evidence that many people sent to El Salvador do not belong to the Aragua Train, and are exposed to serious human rights violations,” Juan Pappier, deputy director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told AFP.
In addition, an American Court of Appeals rejected on Wednesday the White House attempt to raise a court order that prohibits the deportation of migrants in an irregular situation under the law of 1798, applied so far only in war contexts.
Risky play?
According to the White House, Washington paid approximately six million dollars to the Bukele government for accommodating those deported in the CECOT.
For Diego Chaves-González, an analyst at Migration Policy Institute, this alliance could represent a risk for the Salvadoran president.
“While the measure seeks to align with the Trump administration and guarantee a favorable relationship in terms of migration and security, it could also generate tensions if a future US government considers that these practices violate human rights or affect bilateral cooperation,” explained the analyst.
Some 86 thousand alleged gang members have been arrested within the framework of Bukele’s offensive against these structures, which is already three years old. However, around 8 thousand were released when declared innocent.
Deported Salvadorans
The political scientist Napoleon Campos said that “there is no doubt” that Bukele seeks to show himself as a “useful ally” of the Trump administration, in order to avoid the deportation of Salvadorans.
In the United States there are about 2.5 million Salvadorans, who sent 8,479.7 million dollars in remittances to the country for 2024. These represent 23 % of the gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2024 the United States deported 14,195 Salvadorans.
Together with Venezuelans, 23 Salvadorans were deported, alleged gang members, who are also held in the CECOT.