The United States National Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived this Wednesday, March 26 to El Salvador to visit the maximum security prison where more than 200 migrants expelled on a flight by US authorities are detained, and to meet with President Nayib Bukele, with the purpose of increasing migrants expulsions and their imprisonment in this country.
Noem arrived at the San Oscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport after noon, according to the United States Embassy in El Salvador.
After her arrival, the official was transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a megacárcel symbol of the so -called war against gangs promoted by the Bukele government under an exception regime.
In the CECOT, located in an isolated and arid area of the town of Tecoluca, more than 75 kilometers from San Salvador, the secretary will take a tour accompanied by the Salvadoran Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.
Subsequently, President Bukele is expected to receive Noem at the Presidential House to hold a private meeting.
The secretary said Wednesday in an X message that will observe “first hand” the detention center “where the worst of the worst criminals are housed.”
This is the second visit of a senior Trump government official to meet Bukele. The first was the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, at the beginning of February.
On that occasion, the Salvadoran President offered the country’s prisons to imprison convicted criminals, without handling their use for irregular migrants.
On March 16, the Trump government sent more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador under the law of foreign enemies of 1798, despite a court order that prohibited it. They were taken to a maximum security prison, accused of belonging to the criminal band of Aragua.
However, US media reports indicate that at least 101 were arrested in migratory processes.
“The deportations of members of the Aragua Train to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) of El Salvador sent to the world the message that the United States is no longer a safe shelter for violent criminals. I will be in El Salvador to see first -hand the detention center where the worst criminals are housed,” Noem wrote in X.
He added that he hopes to meet Bukele “to discuss how we can increase the number of deportation flights and expulsions of US violent criminals.”
So far, the Salvadoran government has not explained under what regulations have imprisoned these people in the CECOT, since the Legislative Assembly has not approved any agreement that allows it and does not have arrest warrants or criminal proceedings in the Central American country.