Where Trump and Bukele intersect
The March 15, 2025, US deportation flights, which brought hundreds of Venezuelans and a few dozen Salvadorans to El Salvador's CECOT prison, continue to be in the news. The Washington Post disclosed more details about the deal between Washington and Bukele, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio's promise to undo agreements with cooperating witnesses from MS-13 who were ready to testify about bargains between the Salvadoran government and the gang.
Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal (Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2025) -- "in promising to terminate the informant arrangements, current and former Justice Department officials say Rubio threatened to undercut years of work by U.S. law enforcement to apprehend and secure the cooperation of high-ranking members of one of the world’s most deadly gangs."
Rubio's deal had its origins in earlier dealings with El Salvador led by then-ambassador Ron Johnson:
An American Friend: The Trump-Appointed Diplomat Accused of Shielding El Salvador’s President From Law Enforcement (ProPublica, Sept. 30, 2025) -- The many ways that former US Ambassador to El Salvador Ron Johnson has helped out Nayib Bukele.
Deported by Trump, disappeared in Bukele’s jails (El Pais, Oct. 5, 2025) -- Family members of three Salvadorans who were sent from the United States on the same flights as hundreds of Venezuelans, accused without evidence of being gang members, have gone six months without any information about them
El Salvador Misses Deadline from Inter-American Commission to Find Man Deported to CECOT (El Faro, Oct. 21, 2025) -- Since then, the family has endured a bureaucratic ordeal of requests for information, contradictory answers, and official silence. Neither the United States nor El Salvador have provided any information on Irvin’s whereabouts, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
From survivors of those prisons, there is ongoing testimony of torture, abuse and medical neglect.
From the Bowels of Bukele’s Prisons: Survivors Recount Death, Torture, and Starvation (El Faro, Oct. 15, 2025) -- Over two years, El Faro interviewed 27 people released from these prisons, who were not gang members, and who dared to recount cruelty reminiscent of El Salvador’s clandestine prisons of the 1980s.
Trump may be looking for ways to ship more immigrants to Salvadoran prisons with little due process.
Trump administration designates Barrio 18 gang as foreign terrorist organization (AP, Sep 23, 2025) -- Bukele has long referred to members of the gang as “terrorists” and even built a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. It was that same lockup where 200 Venezuelan deportees were held earlier this year as part of an agreement with Trump.
Both the Trump administration in Washington and the Bukele regime have been forcing independent journalists out of their countries who have reported on these issues.
Journalist Mario Guevara, Detained While Reporting, Deported to El Salvador (Newsweek, Oct. 4, 2025) -- Journalist Mario Guevara was deported to El Salvador on Friday after more than 100 days in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody following his June arrest while livestreaming a “No Kings” event near Atlanta. The returning journalist gave interviews to La Prensa Grafica and CBS News upon his return to the Central American country.
Journalism association to leave El Salvador over government pressure (AP, Oct. 1, 2025) -- El Salvador’s Journalists Association is moving its legal status out of the country in response to a foreign agents law passed earlier this year that was seen as a way to pressure critical voices in the Central American nation. Founded in 1936, the association said Wednesday that to continue defending journalists’ rights and freedom of the press it would have to move to another country, which it did not name.
He reported on the rise of an autocrat. Then he had to flee his country (Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 31, 2025) -- Reporter Nelson Rauda of El Faro writes about going into an exile caused by the threats to journalists in El Salvador.
The exile of journalists from El Salvador comes at a time when political imprisonment of Bukele regime critics is on the rise
Political Imprisonment in El Salvador and the Dismantling of Democracy (WOLA, Oct. 17, 2025) -- Since the implementation of the state of exception in El Salvador in March 2022, thousands of arbitrary detentions have occurred. Among those detained, various reports have identified individuals arrested for exercising their freedom of expression, participating in demonstrations, or openly criticizing the government.
Other headlines from El Salvador:
President Bukele bans inclusive language in El Salvador public schools (UPI, Oct. 7, 2025) -- President Nayib Bukele has ordered a ban on the use of "inclusive language" in all public schools in El Salvador, citing the defense of the Spanish language and the protection of children from "external ideologies."
El Salvador’s president seeks help in caring for country’s thousands of stray dogs and cats (AP, Opt. 17, 2025) “Thousands of dogs and cats live on our streets. We want to change that, but without cruelty. We have the financial resources, but we seek expert partners to make it a model for Latin America,” Bukele wrote on X on Oct. 8. “Who wants to come and help?”
Bukele’s El Salvador is also being built by dispossessing the poorest (El Pais) -- On the outskirts of San Salvador, a real estate company is threatening to evict the residents of the Primero de Diciembre neighborhood. This pattern is playing out across the country amid a rapid wave of land privatization and gentrification.
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