Rubio says 10 more people have been expelled to El Salvador

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the United States had sent 10 members of two gangs — MS-13, which originated in the United States and operates in South America, and Tren de Aragua, rooted in Venezuela — to El Salvador late Saturday.

Rubio added in a social media post that “the alliance” between President Donald Trump and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador had “become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”

Deportees sent to El Salvador this weekend came from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a social media message posted by El Salvador’s justice minister, Gustavo Villatoro. The administration has been holding some detainees at the U.S. naval base there.

Villatoro also posted a video of men being marched off a military plane and led in shackles into a prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

The Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelans to the notorious prison in El Salvador at the invitation of Bukele, who is positioning himself as a crucial regional ally to Trump and is scheduled to meet with the president in Washington on Monday.

The administration has portrayed those deportees as violent criminals or terrorists, but court papers have shown that the evidence on which the government acted was often little more than whether they had tattoos or had worn clothing associated with the criminal organization.

Bukele has become Latin America’s most popular leader for his takedown of gangs, even as he has suspended civil liberties and been accused by U.S. prosecutors of secretly negotiating with the same gangs.

A spokesperson for Bukele, Wendy Ramos, did not immediately respond to a request for information on the 10 deportees Rubio referred to.

In early February, Rubio announced a possible deal with Bukele, under which the Salvadoran government would hold convicted criminals in its prison system, for a fee. The administration began sending groups of detainees to El Salvador in mid-March, and has so far sent at least five flights carrying Venezuelan and Salvadoran deportees to El Salvador.

After each flight, the Salvadoran government has released videos and photos showing deportees arriving at the prison.

Some of the men have been expelled from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime power dating to 1798, while others were removed under regular U.S. immigration law and had final deportation orders, according to the administration.

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