MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US convicts transferred to El Salvador's maximum security Cecot prison

The US will pay El Salvador “a small fee” for housing these convicts at the Cecot (Pic EFE)

Salvadoran authorities Sunday received 238 members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs, expelled from the United States under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law unused since World War II. President Nayib Bukele acknowledged their arrival and immediate transfer to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), built in 2023 to house high-profile criminals.

”Today the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to the Cecot, the Reclusion Center for Terrorists, for a period of one year (renewable),“ Bukele wrote on X.

El Salvador's service to the US Republican administration of President Donald Trump will be in exchange for ”a small fee“ to make the penitentiary system ”self-sustainable.“ The inmates will be held for one year, with the possibility of renewal.

The Tren de Aragua, formed in 2014 in Venezuela, is linked to crimes like murders, kidnappings, and trafficking, and was designated a global terrorist organization by the Trump administration.

The transfer faced legal challenges in the U.S., with a federal judge suspending the expulsion order mid-process, though it proceeded.

The move sparked controversy, with Venezuela denouncing it as criminalizing migration and calling the law outdated.

In El Salvador, Bukele's supporters highlited his role in fighting transnational crime, while Trump criticized the [former President Joseph] Biden administration for allegedly allowing such ”monsters” into the US.

The arrangement between the two countries was discussed on Feb. 3 during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's Central American tour.

The Cecot is a maximum security prison that Bukele's government built in Tecoluca, a rural area 75 km southeast of San Salvador.