News Digest

Today we have a collection of links from the international press, covering topics from US deportations to E Salvador, to the hotel industry, to the State of Exception and MS-13.

Man wrongfully deported to El Salvador must be returned to US, court rules (The Guardian, June 24, 2025) -- An appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to return a man wrongfully deported to El Salvador to the US and to explain how it is complying in a ruling apparently designed to break a pattern of apparent government defiance of judicial orders.

Trump administration says ICE could deport Abrego Garcia to country other than El Salvador if he's released from jail (CBS News, June 26, 2025) -- At a hearing in Maryland federal court on Thursday, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn said that once Abrego Garcia is released from detention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to begin removal proceedings to send him to a "third country," rather than El Salvador.

Kidnapped to Salvadoran Mega-Prison: Andry Hernández Romero’s Family on 100+ Days of Disappearance (Democracy Now, June 27, 2025) -- Over 100 days have passed since the Trump administration’s unprecedented removal of more than 230 immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT. They were removed without any due process in the United States. Democracy Now! spoke with the loved ones of Andry Hernández Romero, a 33-year-old gay makeup artist and asylum seeker who was told he would be sent home to Venezuela, according to his mother. But instead, he was sent to CECOT.

Trump’s migrant deportations to Central America run into legal hurdles (El Pais, June 27, 2025) --  The agreements reached by various Central American countries to receive migrants deported from the United States are running into new legal obstacles. In El Salvador, a letter signed by 12 U.N. experts and made public this week urgently calls on President Nayib Bukele to explain the legal and health status of 238 Venezuelans held since March 15 in his maximum-security prison, CECOT.

Peru is considering sending foreign prisoners to El Salvador (CNN, June 12, 2025) --  Peru is weighing sending what it considers highly dangerous foreign inmates to prisons in El Salvador, the prime minister said on Thursday, potentially following in the footsteps of US deportations of migrants to the Central American nation.

ElSalvador: Police Officers Speak Out About Abuses (Human Rights Watch, June 27, 2025) -- Interviews with police officers and internal police documents reveal abusive practices that have led to arbitrary detention and abuse of power in El Salvador.

El Salvador Police Say Quotas and Rumors Fueled Bukele’s Mass Arrests (NYT, June 27, 2025) -- Nearly a dozen officers from El Salvador’s national police described facing intense pressure to meet arrest quotas, according to a Human Rights Watch report released this week, as well as three officers from that group who spoke directly to The New York Times, and the leader of the country’s main group advocating for police officers.

At least 40 journalists have fled El Salvador, fearing imprisonment (Int’l Consortium of Investigative Journalists, June 25, 2025) -- The country’s press association said reporters have been forced to leave the Central American country amid the government’s crackdown on dissent.

Hyatt Hotels Cuts Hundreds of US Jobs in Favour of Workers in El Salvador Earning $400 a Month and AI (Int’l Business Times, June 27, 2025) -- Hundreds of US-based employees have been laid off by Hyatt Hotels in favor of artificial intelligence and lower-paid overseas workers.  Hyatt's front-line call work will now be handled out of El Salvador and the Philippines. Workers in El Salvador are reportedly earning $400 a month for full time work.

Marriott signs City Express deal in El Salvador(Hotel Investment Today, June 25, 2025) -- Marriott International is partnering with a pair of El Salvador-based companies, Corporación Polaris and Cardedeu, to open four City Express by Marriott hotels in El Salvador, marking the brand’s debut in the country.

“Delay, Interfere, Undermine:” How El Salvador’s Government Impeded a U.S. Probe of MS-13 (ProPublica, June 12, 2025) -- New reporting on that investigation by ProPublica shows that senior officials in Bukele’s government repeatedly impeded the work of a U.S. task force as it pursued evidence of possible wrongdoing by the Salvadoran president and his inner circle.  Bukele’s allies secretly blocked extraditions of gang leaders whom U.S. agents viewed as potential witnesses to the negotiations and persecuted Salvadoran law enforcement officials who helped the task force, according to exclusive interviews with current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials, newly obtained internal documents and court records from both countries.

In a previously unreported development, federal agents came to suspect that Bukele and members of his inner circle had diverted U.S. aid funds to the gang as part of the alleged deal to provide it with money and power in exchange for votes and reduced homicide rates.

Trump Admin Moves Quietly To Drop Charges Against MS-13 Leaders, Cites Other National Security Priorities (Latin Times, June 26, 2025) --  As he strengthens his relationship with El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, Trump is reportedly willing to drop charges to leaders of one of the most prominent international gangs that hails from the Central American country and has been linked to Bukele.

Bukele Gets Trump to Toss the Work of Vulcan, the Task Force that Pursued MS-13 (El Faro, June 24, 2025) -- The Donald Trump administration intends to secretly drop charges against leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) accused of acts of terrorism, whom the U.S. president ordered to be prosecuted during his first term, and whose capture was the priority objective of the Joint Task Force Vulcan.