The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said Tuesday (04.02.2025) that his government will study the “very generous” proposal made by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to house in Salvadoran prisons to American prisoners considered considered dangerous and violent, since “there are legal aspects involved.”
“President Bukele made an offer and communicated it publicly. We have to study if something can be applied. There are obviously legal aspects involved. We have a Constitution,” Rubio said at a press conference in San José de Costa Rica after a meeting With Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. Rubio emphasized, however, that the proposal was “very generous.”
Bukele detailed on social networks that the pact consists of accepting the Income “Only Criminals Convicts”, even with American nationality, in the famous maximum security prison of your country, the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT). According to Bukele, the rate that would be paid for each detainee “would be relatively low for the United States, but significant for us and would make our entire penitentiary system sustainable.”
“No one has ever made such an offer”
Rubio said that “nobody has ever made such an offer”, to receive, for “a fraction of cost”, to “some of the most dangerous and violent criminals” that the United States has. “But obviously the administration will have to make a decision,” said the Secretary of State, who arrived in San José after visiting Panama and El Salvador.
Bukele also offered to house any migrant “who is a criminal of any nationality”, such as those of the MS-13 gang (from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) and the Aragua train of Venezuela. According to humanitarian organizations, which cite official data, the Salvadoran penitentiary system has a overcrowding of 133.62 percent.
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, was in favor of sending violent repeat prisoners to other countries, not to mention Bukele’s proposal. “If we had a legal right to do it, I would do it without hesitation. I don’t know if we have it or not. Right now we are examining it, but we could make deals to get these animals out of our country,” said the Republican. “It is not different from Our penitentiary system, except that it would be much less expensive, and would be a great deterrent, ”he said.
DZC (EFE, AFP)
