Maikelys Espinoza's Bernal's grandmother speaks out on her son's detention in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador
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Washington Post
4 hours ago
- Washington Post
House Democrat demands answers on deal to return MS-13 leaders to El Salvador
A key congressional Democrat is demanding answers from the Trump administration about a deal it reportedly struck with El Salvador's president to send him several MS-13 gang leaders held in the United States, alleging it may have compromised several ongoing investigations and national security. Citing media reports of that agreement, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, asked in a letter Monday to know what role President Nayib Bukele's demands for the MS-13 leaders played in his willingness to take in more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants deported from the U.S. this year. The migrants' transfer to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador has become one of the most controversial episodes of President Donald Trump's mass deportation effort. Garcia also asked Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem whether any of those MS-13 bosses had information that would have aided U.S. efforts to dismantle their criminal organization, one of the world's most deadly, or to investigate corruption within Bukele's own government. The administration's apparent willingness to give in to Bukele's demands 'not only undercuts ongoing federal investigations but also threatens U.S. national security,' Garcia wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. 'If true, this surreptitious deal struck by the Trump administration has profound implications for the integrity of the United States justice system and national security,' Garcia wrote. 'The Committee demands to understand whether U.S. officials facilitated the repatriation of MS-13 leaders to prevent them from cooperating with American prosecutors.' The gang leaders sought by Bukele were charged in a pair of cases playing out in federal court on Long Island that U.S. government officials have described as 'the highest-reaching and most sweeping indictments targeting MS-13 and its command and control structure in U.S. history.' The indictments alleged that many of the accused had been directly involved in negotiating a truce with unnamed members of Bukele's government to tamp down public gang killings in El Salvador to help the president's party win a supermajority in the country's legislature in 2021 midterm elections. In exchange, Salvadoran officials offered the gang leaders cash and other perks, including improved prison conditions, control of territory and a commitment that El Salvador would deny requests to extradite them to face prosecution in the U.S., according to one of the indictments. 'In effect,' Garcia wrote in his letter Monday, 'the Salvadoran government traded criminal impunity for political gain.' In one instance, outlined in U.S. court filings, 'high-level Salvadoran government officials' personally escorted one of the leaders sought by the U.S. from a Salvadoran prison, housed him in a luxury apartment, provided him with a gun and then drove him to the Guatemalan border to be smuggled out of the country. That man — Elmer Canales Rivera, also known as 'Crooks' — was later apprehended in Mexico and sent to the United States in 2023. He and the other MS-13 leaders are incarcerated in New York, awaiting trial on an array of narcoterrorism charges. Prosecutors have said Canales Rivera was one of the lead negotiators of MS-13's alleged deal with the Bukele government. His eventual trial in New York is likely to include evidence about those talks that could prove politically damaging to Bukele in El Salvador. Reuters reported in late 2021 that U.S. authorities under the Biden administration had also been preparing indictments against two senior Bukele administration officials, accused of spearheading the alleged secret deal with the gang. Bukele has denied any cooperation between his government and MS-13. His ambassador in Washington, Milena Mayorga, said in March that Bukele's request for the gang leaders to be returned to El Salvador was 'a question of honor.' So far, the Trump administration has sent back only one of the requested MS-13 leaders: César Humberto López Larios, known as 'Greñas,' 'Shock' in Spanish. The Justice Department sought dismissal of its charges against him in March, and four days later, he was flown out of the country along with the first Venezuelans sent to El Salvador as part of the deal between the Trump and Bukele administrations. Weeks later, prosecutors moved to drop their case against a second man — Vladimir Arévalo Chávez, a gang member known as 'Vampiro' — citing 'sensitive and important foreign policy considerations' and 'geopolitical and national security concerns.' But that dismissal has been held up for months by U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, who has questioned what role the alleged agreement between Bukele and the Trump administration has played in prosecutors' request. Arévalo's attorneys say they fear their client will 'returned to El Salvador and be silenced by Bukele's administration there.' 'My life is in very danger if I'm deported,' Arévalo wrote in a letter to the judge last month. 'In my case, I will be tortured and desposed [sic] of.' The Justice Department has declined to comment on its decisions to drop charges against López Larios and Arévalo or say whether it intends to send back any of the other MS-13 leaders Bukele demanded, including Canales Rivera. Garcia, in his letter Monday, asked the Trump administration to respond to his inquiries by early next month.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he's targeting ‘worst of the worst,' but who's getting pardoned? A letter.
Here is this week's letter to the editor of the Sheboygan Press. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views. Trump says he's targeting 'worst of the worst' Donald Trump and his head of the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, say they are targeting only the 'worst of the worst' when it comes to criminals in the United States. They have taken thousands of immigrants off our streets without warning or a trial. The White House and Justice Department then send those very same people to prisons in El Salvador. Their only crime was crossing the border without permission. These are not the 'worst of the worst,' yet these immigrants are treated worse than murderers and child molesters. Trump has pardoned all these types of criminals. Right now, after talking to a Trump lawyer, super sex predator Ghislaine Maxwell is serving out her time in a luxury prison in Texas. And all she had to do, presumably, was give Trump some names on a silver platter, which she likely gladly did in exchange for a few favors. I'll bet that in a month or two her pardon will be forthcoming — in exchange for her testimony against some of those names. Yes, our president and his Justice Department are really going after the 'worst of the worst.' Watch out all you jaywalkers out there. If you're brown, Trump will hunt you down. You are a hardened criminal, after all. Ask Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland Security. Robert R. Ries Sheboygan Our letters policy Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to news@ and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@ Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel. This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Trump targets worst of the worst, pardons predator: Letter to editor Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
El Salvador extends detention of suspected gang members
Tens of thousands of suspected gang members arrested under an internationally criticized crackdown in El Salvador will be detained without trial until at least 2027, after lawmakers approved an extension Friday. Over 80,000 Salvadorans have been detained -- some of whom opposition figures and human rights defenders maintain are innocent -- since gang-busting President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency in 2022 that allowed arrests without warrants. The Legislative Assembly, which has 57 members of Bukele's ruling party and three from the opposition, approved on Friday a reform to a law regulating investigations into organized crime. The approval came just 10 days before a two-year deadline ran out for charges to be filed for the imprisoned detainees. The government accuses the detainees all of being gang members, but with scant evidence or due process, no one knows for sure. One of the provisions of the reform said the Attorney General's office "will bring charges against the organized crime and its members... within a maximum period of 24 months," while also allowing for a 12-month extension. To file the charges, the Attorney General's office will "group the defendants into a single case" for each gang, with the main ones under scrutiny being the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs. Around 300 prosecutors will present evidence in roughly 600 mass trials for the suspects, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado told a congressional security committee on Thursday. Delgado said the trials will be divided by the organization, where they operated, or what crimes the detainees are suspected of committing. - '40%' could be innocent - Inside the assembly, opposition lawmaker Francisco Lira warned that "innocent" people could be tried in the mass trials, which he estimated could be "40 percent" of those detained. "I do not defend gangs, criminals, nor extortionists (but) if there are innocent people, they are being sentenced to spend more time in prison" due to the delays, Lira said. Under the reforms, the mass trials will remain open if more defendants are added to the same case -- but if no new defendants are added within two years, the judge may issue a ruling. If prosecutors do not file an indictment within a maximum period of three years, the judge may dismiss the case. Opposition lawmaker Claudia Ortiz said the reforms are "a reflection of the lack of capacity possessed by the institutions that are supposed to administer justice in our country." "Because in more than two years they have not done what they are supposed to do... which is fully investigate the facts," she added. Bukele's hardline approach to El Salvador's powerful gangs has made him one of the world's most domestically popular leaders, even as human rights defenders sound the alarm over arbitrary arrests and growing authoritarianism. ob-mis/mel/jgc/dl
