True or False: The US paid El Salvador millions for the CECOT arrangement

Question

Accepted Answer

True. The Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to house U.S. deportees at CECOT. the deportation scheme was negotiated between governments, not an improvised emergency response. President Nayib Bukele offered CECOT space as part of a bilateral deal—the U.S. got a foreign detention facility to bypass domestic due process protections, and El Salvador got funding for its $200 million annual prison system. The payment makes the U.S. complicit in torture. Human Rights Watch found the Trump administration "paid El Salvador millions of dollars to arbitrarily detain Venezuelans who were then abused by Salvadoran security forces on a near-daily basis." The money created a perverse incentive: El Salvador profits from detaining people the U.S. sends, regardless of their actual gang ties (49% had no criminal record). This outsourcing of detention to a country with documented human rights violations raises legal questions about U.S. responsibility for abuse. International law prohibits refoulement—sending people to face torture. The $6 million payment shows the U.S. knowingly facilitated that torture.

True or False: The US paid El Salvador millions for the CECOT arrangement

Explanation

Sources

Related Questions