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USA Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
The shadowy rise of Donald Trump's favorite president: Nayib Bukele
The shadowy rise of Donald Trump's favorite president: Nayib Bukele Bukele rose to near-total control of El Salvador on a tide of support from the very gang he's credited with defeating, according to interviews and documents reviewed by USA TODAY. Show Caption Hide Caption HFR Who is Nayib Bukele, the controversial El Salvadorian president? HFR President Nayib Bukele rose to near-total control of El Salvador on a tide of support from the very gang he's credited with defeating. WASHINGTON − Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele owes his support in Washington to a controversial agreement to hold hundreds of Venezuelans deported from the U.S. in a notorious prison – and to a reputation for having broken the back of the MS-13 gang. "We are not going to stop until we capture the last remaining terrorist,' he vowed in 2023, more than a year into his war on El Salvador's gangs. Recorded murders fell under Bukele's watch from 2,398 in 2019 to 114 in 2024. Salvadorans, Donald Trump said last month, 'have a tremendous president." But that's just part of the story. Bukele rose to near-total control of El Salvador on a tide of support from the very gang he's credited with defeating, according to a U.S. federal indictment, the Treasury department, regional experts, and Salvadoran media. In March, Trump's Justice Department dropped terrorism charges against Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, an alleged top MS-13 leader, and returned him to El Salvador before he could potentially reveal Bukele's deals in an American courtroom. Lopez-Larios, one of MS-13's self-styled '12 Apostles of the Devil,' isn't the only person with potentially damaging information on Bukele. USA TODAY has learned that a former president of El Salvador's national assembly – who is also familiar with gangland negotiations – was seized by U.S. immigration officers in March and awaits deportation to his homeland, where he was convicted in absentia for illicit gang dealings. Bukele's deal with MS-13 Leaders of MS-13 negotiated with Bukele ahead of his 2019 presidential landslide and gave him a sometimes violent get-out-the-vote effort in 2021 legislative elections, the U.S. Justice Department has alleged. The 2021 victory gave Bukele's Nuevas Ideas party a legislative supermajority that allowed the term-limited president to cull the country's supreme court, oust the attorney general, and blow through El Salvador's constitution to run for and win a second term. In return, MS-13 leaders received prison privileges, financial benefits − and a ban on extraditions to the United States, U.S. prosecutors, Salvadoran media, and people familiar with the negotiations told USA TODAY. An examination of Bukele's past shows how a gifted young politician, who once described himself as 'a radical leftist,' rose to power with the help of a Communist guerilla commander, Venezuelan oil money – and a winning deal with MS-13's bloodstained leadership. 'There are serious allegations that Bukele purchased peace by making deals with the gangs that Trump says he's at war with,' said former Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., who once headed the State Department's democracy and human rights office. "We are grateful for President Bukele's partnership and for CECOT – one of the most secure facilities in the world – there is no better place for these sick criminals,' White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, referring to the prison holding thousands of MS-13 detainees and hundreds of Venezuelans deported from the U.S. Jackson didn't address questions about Bukele's collusion with MS-13. The Salvadoran embassy did not return a message seeking comment. Trump's 'Vulcans' The most important U.S. source on Bukele's MS-13 ties is a task force created during Trump's first administration. El Salvador's president Bukele says he won't return Maryland man In a meeting at the White House, Nayib Bukele told President Trump he would not return the mistakenly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Joint Task Force Vulcan was launched in 2019. It was staffed by bloodhounds from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA and others with one mission: 'To destroy MS-13, a vile and evil gang of people,' Trump said at the time. Vulcan tore into the task. While winning terrorism and drug indictments against MS-13's Ranfla, or board of directors, investigators discovered a group that was closer to an armed insurgency than a traditional street gang. Drugs? Of course. Human trafficking? Naturally. But also: Trained strike battalions, rocket launchers, and power over life and death stretching from New York's Long Island to Central America, prosecutors said. The U.S. lawmen also found Faustian bargains had been made with MS-13 by El Salvador's old-guard political parties, who were desperate to lower a stratospheric murder rate – and by Nayib Bukele, the self-styled reformer who had promised to clean things up. Comandante Ramiro Bukele, the son of a businessman, dropped out of college and worked in advertising before he gained the attention of the FMLN, the political party of El Salvador's former communist insurgents. In 2011 he won the mayoralty of Nuevo Cuscatlán, just outside the capital. Despite a population of just 8,000, Bukele used the town as a megaphone. Exploiting social media in ways new to El Salvador, he was seen as a progressive newcomer and caught the eye of the man who would serve as his political godfather. Jose Luis Merino was a Communist guerilla commander during El Salvador's bitter 12-year civil war and became a deputy minister for foreign investment after FMLN won the presidency in 2009. Merino was the party's main link to the governments of Hugo Chavez and, later, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, which used oil money to support leftist movements across the region. Some of that cash went to the young mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán – Bukele has acknowledged that businesses he controlled received $1.9 million originating from a Venezuelan-Salvadoran oil company that experts say was controlled by Merino. He described the funds as legitimate commercial loans. Audits later determined the oil company had doled out $1 billion in unrecovered loans to entities related to Merino, according to a 2020 report. Merino is among several Bukele associates – including Bukele's chief of cabinet, his press secretary, his gang reintegration coordinator, and his prisons director – placed under U.S. sanctions for corruption and 'actions that undermine democratic processes or institutions' during Joe Biden's administration. In 2016, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then a Republican senator from Florida, called Merino a key enabler of a leftist Colombian narco-insurgency, blasting Bukele's patron as 'a top-notch, world-class money launderer, arms smuggler for the FARC.' Rubio accused Merino of 'millions of dollars of laundering for the FARC as well as corrupt Venezuelan officials.' Bukele was elected mayor of San Salvador in 2015, a traditional springboard to the presidency, and broke with the FMLN two years later. Merino, whose nom de guerre was Comandante Ramiro, abandoned his old comrades and backed Bukele, who was elected president in 2019. Bukele's MS-13 ties El Salvador's leaders had been making deals with the gangs for years, trading leniency in prison and on the streets for a reduction in homicides that reached a high of 6,656 in 2015. Bukele took the deals to new heights. A 2022 U.S. federal indictment based on Vulcan's work alleged MS-13 leaders held talks with all of the country's political parties 'including without limitation negotiations in connection with the February 2019 El Salvador presidential election' – in which Bukele took 85% of the vote. After Bukele's victory, his administration met secretly with imprisoned MS-13 leaders. MS-13 members who were not incarcerated were brought into prison meetings with government ID cards 'identifying them as intelligence or law enforcement officials,' the indictment said. In those talks, gang leaders 'agreed to provide political support to the Nuevas Ideas political party in upcoming elections,' the U.S. Treasury department said, while announcing sanctions on Bukele's top negotiators. MS-13 demanded an end to extraditions, shortened sentences, and control of territory. In return, the gang agreed to 'reduce the number of public murders…creating the impression that the government was reducing the murder rate,' the indictment says. 'In fact, MS-13 leaders continued to authorize murders where the victims' bodies were buried or otherwise hidden.' Human rights groups found that, even as El Salvador's official murder rate fell, reported disappearances went up – a trend that started before Bukele was elected president. Bukele, who sold himself as a trailblazer, used the same playbook as his predecessors – only more effectively, people familiar with the operation said. The Salvadoran president's gang associations go back to his time as mayor of the capital, San Salvador. El Faro newspaper reported on a December 2015 phone call that police intercepted between two MS-13 members in which one brags that he's prepping for a meeting with top aides to San Salvador's mayor – Bukele – at a shopping mall Pizza Hut.'Monday at 10 at Multiplaza, we're all meeting up,' one says. 'The mayor already knows…he said 'Yeah.'' After the meeting, El Faro reported, police stopped the two Bukele aides and released them without arrest. The cozy dealings appeared to end in March 2022, when three days of violence took 87 lives in the tiny Central American country. Bukele declared a temporary state of emergency that's been renewed every month since, and El Salvador's prison population swelled to 110,000; many of these detainees have been charged with 'illicit association.' The devil's 'apostle' and the former mayor One person who, prosecutors allege, knows plenty about Bukele's deals with MS-13 is Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, an original member of the gang's '12 Apostles of the Devil.' Until recently, Lopez-Larios was based in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial on charges that included plotting terrorist attacks in the United States. But on March 11, John Durham, then-interim U.S. attorney for New York's Eastern District, asked federal Judge Joan Azrack to drop the charges. Durham, who earlier led the Vulcan task force, cited 'sensitive and important foreign policy considerations.' Six days later, Lopez-Larios was seen among dozens of Venezuelans being dragged off a deportation flight and processed in El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison. The White House hailed his deportation. 'It's very telling that the price Bukele demanded' for imprisoning U.S. deportees at CECOT 'was the return of these MS-13 leaders who were poised to testify in court,' Malinowski said. (Trump has touted a reported $6 million payment to Bukele's administration for holding the deportees as a bargain.) Another top MS-13 leader, Elmer 'Crook de Hollywood' Canales-Rivera, remains in U.S. custody, though people familiar with the case fear he too could be returned before trial. The Bukele administration secretly freed Canales from a Salvadoran prison in November 2021, gave him a handgun, and dropped the alleged terrorist at the Guatemalan border, U.S. prosecutors said. Task Force Vulcan tracked Canales to Mexico. He was captured and deported to the U.S. where he awaits trial. A person familiar with the case said that, like Lopez-Larios, Canales was directly involved in negotiations with Bukele – describing him as Bukele's crown jewel. Another Bukele opponent who may soon return to El Salvador is Norman Quijano, who served as president of the national assembly and is a former mayor of San Salvador. Quijano fled El Salvador in 2021, hours before his parliamentary immunity expired, and sought political asylum in the United States. He was convicted in absentia of seeking support from MS-13 and the Barrio 18 gang in a failed 2014 run for president with the conservative ARENA party. Now 78, Quijano is the highest-ranking Salvadoran official convicted of gang ties in prosecutions that experts say have targeted the opposition while sparing Bukele's associates. A person familiar with Quijano told USA TODAY the politician had paid for gang support in his 2014 run – but he was outbid by Bukele's then-party, the FMLN, which paid more than double what Quijano could raise. Quijano lost by a whisker with 49.89% of the vote. Quijano was tried by Salvadoran Judge Godofredo Miranda. In February 2020, Miranda ruled in a separate case that he could 'infer' the FMLN's 2014 gang negotiations 'particularly impacted the election for mayor of San Salvador at the time,' which Bukele won before later breaking with the party. 'It is therefore mandatory to verify the existence of any close contacts between the MS gang and the current Cabinet,' the judge wrote of Bukele's presidency. ICE agents arrested Quijano on March 6, days before the Trump administration dropped charges against MS-13 leader Lopez-Larios. Quijano is being held at a Texas detention facility. His attorney couldn't be reached; family members did not reply to calls and messages seeking comment.
UPI
27-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Bukele-inspired security movement seeks foothold in Latin America
As violence increases across Latin America, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele's (R) security gains are drawing interest from local leaders looking to form a regional political movement, tapping into public frustration over crime and insecurity. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo May 27 (UPI) -- A sharp drop in crime in El Salvador has made President Nayib Bukele one of Latin America's most prominent leaders. As violence increases across the region, his security gains are drawing interest from local leaders looking to form a regional political movement, tapping into public frustration over crime and insecurity. The so-called "Bukelista movement" began to take shape earlier this year during a meeting in Colombia that included participants from Chile and Guatemala. The group established a regional agenda to promote the model across Latin America. Among those attending was Colombian attorney Andrés Guzmán Caballero, who was appointed in 2023 by Bukele as El Salvador's presidential commissioner for human rights and freedom of expression. In Colombia, "Bukelismo" became an officially registered political party in April after receiving recognition from the National Electoral Council. "Bukelistas Colombia" is now active in 24 of the country's 33 departments and plans to field candidates for the Senate and presidency in the next elections, according to Mauricio Morris, a political marketing expert and leader of the movement in Colombia. Similar Bukelista movements and parties have formed in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras and Guatemala. The goal is to be active in 12 countries by the end of the year, Morris said. The Bukelista movement was officially launched in Chile last weekend, with support from a group of local and regional officials. Guzmán Caballero attended the event, despite resigning from his Salvadoran government post just days earlier. At the launch, he presented Bukele's security strategy and said the "Bukele model" could be replicated in other countries, citing similar criminal dynamics across the region. Speaking about El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT -- the high-security mega-prison that recently received suspected gang members and other criminal detainees from the Trump administration -- Guzmán Caballero said El Salvador's approach goes beyond incarceration. The model also aims to combat corruption and support wide-reaching social development programs, he said. During his visit to Chile, Guzmán Caballero also held a private meeting with Evelyn Matthei, the center-right presidential candidate currently leading in national polls. Bukele's administration has drawn global attention for both its results and controversies. El Salvador, once one of the most violent countries in the world, now reports one of the lowest homicide rates in Latin America. The shift has occurred under a state of emergency declared in 2022, which has led to the arrest of more than 85,000 people -- many without warrants or access to legal counsel. Human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented reports of torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in police custody.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ says Kilmar Abrego Garcia will "never walk freely in the US"
WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice told a federal judge on Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will "never walk freely in the U.S." What we know Abrego Garcia's lawyers said in a Maryland court on Friday that the Trump administration has produced thousands of pages of documents in this case – but his lawyers have only received 164 pages. The Trump administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in the case, arguing that releasing details in open court or to a judge in private about any efforts to return Abrego Garcia would jeopardize national security. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said their explanation for invoking state secrets privilege was inadequate. "There's simply no details," she said. "This is basically 'take my word for it.'" Xinis said the administration needs to "do a little bit more to show its work" on why it believes the state secrets privilege applies. "We think we've provided significant information," said Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn. "Abrega Garcia's attorneys are trying to force the government to disclose information about not only his whereabouts, but also what the government is doing to facilitate his return, and the government resisting that on the grounds of state secrets of privilege," said international law professor Milena Sterio. What they're saying Trump attorneys told Xinis that Abrego Garcia "will never walk freely in the U.S." "That sounds to me like an admission you will not take steps to facilitate the release or return of Abrego Garcia," Xinis said. "That's about as clear as it can get." What's next Sterio said the next step from Xinis could be to hold government officials in contempt for failure to comply with the court order. "That is a tool that court judges have at their disposal in normal litigation. But it is a rule that's rarely invoked against the government, because these government officials, they're not acting in their individual capacity, they are there representing the government," said Sterio. The backstory Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez. On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother's house, according to his lawyers. He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang. His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge's order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador. Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back. The Source This story includes reporting from FOX News reporter Breanne Deppisch, an interview from international law professor Milena Sterio and previous FOX 5 DC reporting.
USA Today
15-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
VP Vance, who Pope Leo XIV previously criticized, to attend pope's first mass in Vatican City
VP Vance, who Pope Leo XIV previously criticized, to attend pope's first mass in Vatican City Show Caption Hide Caption Pope Leo's impact on American politics Even before becoming the first American pope, Leo XIV was not shy about criticizing some of the Trump administration's policies. WASHINGTON ― Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV this Sunday, May 18 in the Vatican City, the White House said. The two men, who will lead a larger U.S. delegation to attend the first American's pope's first mass, will be joined by their wives, second lady Usha Vance and Jeannette Rubio. Vance, the first converted Catholic to serve as vice president, met with the late Pope Francis on April 20, less than 24 hours before the pope died following a weeks-long battle with double pneumonia and other health issues. More: Before he was elected pope, Leo XIV was critical of Trump, Vance on social media Prior to becoming pope on May 8, Leo ‒ then-Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago ‒ promoted several opinion articles on social media, some as recently as April, critical of Vance's interpretation of Scripture and immigration. "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others," one headline posted Feb. 3 reads. More: Will Donald Trump get along with another pope who opposes his 'anti-immigrant' rhetoric? On April 14, Leo retweeted criticism of Trump and President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele's response to the the Trump administration's controversial deportation of El Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland. A decade earlier, Leo shared a 2015 column on X, then Twitter, written by a fellow cardinal with the headline "Why Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic." The White House has brushed off Leo's social media commentary. "I think it was a surprise to everyone," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of Leo's past social media posts. "But it's a great thing for the United States of America and for the world," she said of the first U.S.-born pope, "and we are praying for him." More: Pope Leo XIV makes 1st social media post as pontiff, deletes personal accounts Leo this week wiped his personal social media accounts and made his first official post as pontiff. "Peace be with you all!" Leo wrote in his first post on X. "This is the first greeting spoken by the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, and among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world." Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
ICE says nearly 200 immigrants arrested in Nashville during recent operations
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement New Orleans Field Office announced a weeklong operation resulted in the arrest of 196 immigrants in Nashville. In a news release May 13, the agency said some had significant criminal histories. ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams said the operation focused on identifying those with criminal histories. He did not name any of those arrested. More: THP says ICE operation ongoing, over 350 stopped for traffic violations 'This enforcement effort underscores ICE's unwavering commitment to public safety and the rule of law. Our officers are focused on identifying and removing individuals who pose a threat to the safety and security of Tennessee residents,' said acting Enforcement and Removal Operations New Orleans Field Office Director Brian Acuna. 'During the operation I witnessed the men and women of the Tennessee Highway Patrol carry out significant public safety efforts. The New Orleans Field Office is grateful for their support." On May 8, the Tennessee Highway Patrol announced it made 468 traffic stops in an ongoing joint operation with ICE agents. Williams said of the 196 arrested, 95 had prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Thirty-one of those arrested were previously removed immigrants who reentered the United States illegally, the release stated. ICE released limited information on seven of 196 arrested. They did not provide the name of anyone. The agency stated a Venezuelan national and an El Salvadorian national were affiliated with gangs. A Mexican national had been previously removed from the U.S. six times and convicted of felony domestic assault and sex with a minor. An Iraqi national had been convicted of rape. Williams said individuals with final orders of removal who returned to the country illegally after being previously deported are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a court hearing before an immigration judge or travel plans for removal. Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@ and on X @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ICE says nearly 200 arrested in Nashville during recent operations
