El Salvador's Leader Went All In on Trump. One Democrat Still Wants to Work With Him.

Politico

29-05-2025

In the current political moment, Democrats for El Salvador are about as common as coal miners for green energy. But there's at least one: Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, a Blue Dog Democrat and ally to the Central American country's strongman leader and MAGA darling, Nayib Bukele.
In recent months, Democrats have been harshly critical of Bukele, who has become one of Donald Trump's most eager partners overseas, particularly on his immigration agenda. Bukele agreed earlier this year to hold over 240 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States by the Trump administration in indefinite detention, and he has also refused to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran who the Trump administration conceded was mistakenly deported to the country. Bukele's bad blood with Democrats has only gotten worse with his avid support for Trump and willingness to troll congressional Democrats on Twitter.
But there's at least one Democrat still on Bukele's side. Gonzalez is, along with former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the founding co-chair of the El Salvador Caucus, which they formed last year. Gonzalez is also the lone congressional Democrat to have met with Bukele on a visit to El Salvador as well as been granted a tour of CECOT in mid-May, the infamous Salvadoran prison to which the Venezuelan migrants and Abrego Garcia were sent. (Abrego Garcia has since been moved.) Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and other delegations of House Democrats who went to the country in recent months were unable to gain access to CECOT or meet with Bukele on their trip.
Gonzalez's support of Bukele can be seen as consistent with his other centrist border and immigration stances. Gonzalez represents a 90 percent Hispanic border district that Trump won in 2024 and has been vocal about the need for immigration enforcement. He has hailed what he sees as the transformative effects of Bukele's crackdown on rampant gang violence in El Salvador and has described the country as a model for Latin America.
'I think it's undeniable what he's done has been spectacular, in terms of bringing security to over 98 percent of the population that lived in turmoil for over a generation,' the Texas Democrat told POLITICO Magazine in an interview. 'He clean[ed] up the most dangerous country in the world and turn[ed] it into the safest in the hemisphere.' The murder rate in the Central American country has dropped drastically in the past decade, particularly since Bukele's first election, though critics say the price has been a severe crackdown on civil liberties.
After his trip to El Salvador in mid-May, Gonzalez said in a press release that 'El Salvador is crucial in helping the United States curb the flow of irregular migration and is an important ally in the western hemisphere.' Since Bukele took office, migration to the United States from El Salvador has declined significantly.
All of this makes for a very unusual dynamic on Capitol Hill for Gonzalez.
Out of 14 members, Gonzalez is one of only two Democrats in the El Salvador Caucus; the other is Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.). The organization is unapologetically pro-Bukele. In a floor speech announcing its formation, Gaetz said, 'The purpose of this caucus will be to vindicate the choices that President Bukele has made that, indeed, strengthen the U.S.-El Salvador relationship.'
Gonzalez doesn't see a reason why his colleagues can't be a part of that relationship, too. 'I think Democrats … shouldn't shy from building a diplomatic relationship with the country of El Salvador,' Gonzalez said. 'I think we have a lot in common. And I don't think Bukele comes from an extreme right-wing history. I think he's kind of been a middle-of-the-road survivor.' He also said he's in the process of setting up meetings between the Salvadoran ambassador and Democrats to start improving relations.
The lawmaker has also been making the same case to Bukele. 'I told [Bukele] it would be very shortsighted to think that the only people he should have a relationship with are Republicans,' Gonzalez said.
Gaetz's support is less unique among Republicans. Bukele has become one of the most beloved foreign leaders on the MAGA right, joining a pantheon that includes figures such as Argentina's President Javier Milei and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Starting with his early embrace of bitcoin and crypto currency, followed by his crackdown on rampant gang violence in El Salvador (not to mention his ardent posting on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter), Bukele has become a star attraction at CPAC and was given the warmest possible reception when he visited Trump at the White House this year. (Even if Trump did take shots at El Salvador in his 2024 convention speech and on the campaign trail at times.) As one Republican strategist, granted anonymity to speak frankly, marveled, 'it was interesting to see the entire Cabinet in a meeting with the president of a country of six million who is not a player in a major region.'
At the same time, human rights organizations have become increasingly critical of Bukele. Roughly 2 percent of the population is in prison as a result of a crackdown on gangs, which also included a 'state of exception' that Bukele declared in 2022 that allowed him to broadly suspend civil liberties in the country and is still in effect today. Activists in the country have been arrested and journalists have fled the country, but Bukele has remained remarkably popular. He won re-election in 2024 with nearly 85 percent of the vote.
In our interview, Gonzalez continued to praise the transformation of El Salvador but shared concerns over some of the Salvadoran government's actions and the steps it had taken to cooperate with the Trump administration's deportation efforts. 'I personally, as a lawyer, believe that the Salvadorans could be exposing themselves to legal liability in foreign jurisdictions for a long time to come if they get in the business of incarcerating foreigners,' he said.
Gonzalez relayed that he had told Bukele, 'In 20 years, President Trump will be long gone and and the legal liability from actions that you take today can follow you for a very long time, as we've seen with Pinochet, as we've seen with Fujimori, as we've seen with Duterte,' referring to foreign leaders who have faced criminal charges for human-rights violations after leaving power. Gonzalez thought this message was 'very effective.'
'One thing that I think would be a deal-breaker not only for me, but for millions of Americans, would be the idea of incarcerating Americans,' Gonzalez continued. 'And I know that that was talked about by President Trump and suggested to him, and [Bukele] assured us that that would not happen and that he would not be accepting Americans for incarceration.'
In reference to Abrego Garcia in particular, Gonzalez said that he believed that if the U.S. government asked for his return, 'they would get [him].'
Gonzalez said that the Venezuelans held at CECOT were held in 'very different conditions' than Salvadoran inmates, which Gonzalez said he observed himself. 'There's a lot less people per unit. They're fed three times a day. They're given much more freedoms' than Salvadorans in the prison, he said. In addition, Gonzalez also said that Venezuelan migrants who are not alleged to be part of any criminal organization are not at the prison and instead are 'living in a separate migrant detention center, similar to what we've had here for a long time.'
This information, if true, is more than what others have been able to obtain about the migrants' circumstances in El Salvador. Family members of Venezuelans detained in El Salvador have little if any information about their loved ones' whereabouts since their deportations and the access that Gonzalez received to CECOT has not been given to international human rights groups, let alone other members of Congress.
Gonzalez chastised both Bukele as well as his Democratic colleagues for letting things get out of hand with a war of words on social media. 'Just as much as I get after my Democratic colleagues for making a spectacle out of the political conditions, I don't believe that the Salvadoran government should disrespect the United States senators and members of Congress who visit El Salvador,' he said.
However, Gonzalez thought there should still be a partnership. 'I think Bukele is a good person, and I really do think he means well and wants to do the best he can for his country, and I think we should work with him.'
Like Gonzalez, Gaetz also told me that he thought Bukele would respond to some courting. 'I think Bukele's desire is to have a strong relationship with the United States no matter who's in power,' he said. The former Florida congressman noted that the Central American leader frequently expresses his dismay that 'Kamala Harris never once called him' when she was assigned to handle migration from Central America during the Biden administration.
Gaetz thought that Bukele had not yet 'burned the bridges and burned the boats with the Democratic Party.'
Democrats, though, begged to differ.
Already Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have introduced legislation that could potentially lead to an end to all security assistance from the United States to El Salvador in response to the deportations.
One prominent Democratic consultant granted anonymity to discuss the politics of this frankly noted that there wasn't any real political upside for engagement with Bukele.
'There are about a dozen ways to signal you are taking the immigration crisis seriously before cozying up to dictators,' this person said.
It's a breach between congressional Democrats and Bukele that is probably more than can be fixed by a simple charm offensive like the one being proposed by Gonzalez. As Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) put it, 'There's always a path back from authoritarianism, but it requires structural changes, and not just personal change of heart on behalf of a malign dictator becoming a benevolent dictator.'