El Salvador offers to jail US convicts in ‘unprecedented’ proposal

El Salvador’s president has proposed jailing convicts from the United States in his country, an “unprecedented” offer praised by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Nayib Bukele made the offer while hosting Rubio at his Lake Coatepeque residence, outside San Salvador, on Monday. Bukele said El Salvador is ready to imprison the convicted Americans for payment in a prison he opened a year ago that is the largest in Latin America.

“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X. “The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

Following the three-hour meeting, Rubio told reporters that Bukele “agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world”. “He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency. No country’s ever made an offer of friendship such as this. We are profoundly grateful.”

The US State Department describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous”. The department’s website, in the information on El Salvador, says “in many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent”.

Rubio added that Bukele was also willing to take back Salvadoran citizens as well as foreign nationals. He appeared to suggest the focus in El Salvador would be on jailing members of Latin American gangs, such as El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.

“Any unlawful immigrant and illegal immigrant in the United States who is a dangerous criminal – MS-13, Tren de Aragua, whatever it may be — he has offered his jails,” Rubio said. (Aljazeera)

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