9 h. ago Want to beat authoritarianism? Look to Latin America | Greg Grandin

The region has grappled with dictatorships, coups and inequality. But its democratic spirit remains vital – and offers a lesson for the USInspiration on how to beat back authoritarianism is in short supply, but those searching for hope in these dark times might consider Latin America.It’s not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about democracy, associated as it is with coups, death squads, dictatorships, inequality, drug violence and now a country, El Salvador, offering itself up to Donald Trump as an offshore prison colony for deportees. Continue reading...

Culture

5 d. ago ‘I just ask God that he’s OK’: family of Venezuelan musician sent to El Salvador prison agonizes over his fate

Arturo Suárez Trejo was caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown in North Carolina and sent to a notorious Salvadorian prisonIn a recording studio in downtown Santiago, where the dad she has never met once sung, a four-month-old baby girl snuggles in her mother’s arms, noise-cancelling earmuffs shielding her tiny ears from the sound.Nahiara Rubí Suárez Sánchez is equally oblivious to the plight of her father, a Venezuelan musician who is thought to be languishing in a maximum-security prison thousands of miles away in El Salvador after being swept up in Donald Trump’s anti-migrant crusade. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Trump has found in El Salvador a model for the repressive state he wants to build – and he’s just getting started | Jordana Timerman

Nayib Bukele has shown how brutal control can be sustained not just through force, but by raising the cost of speaking outThe Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) maximum security prison in El Salvador is the crown jewel of President Nayib Bukele’s efforts to quash not only criminal gangs, but also criticism and political opposition to his government. The “mega-prison” is also one of the more visible destinations in the emerging map of American deportations – a sprawling archipelago that includes conservative US districts, the Guantánamo military base and Central American waypoints connected by a tangle of military and charter flights.That the two states have connected their penal architecture is no coincidence. Donald Trump’s aggressive policies towards foreigners build on Bukele’s infamous iron fist crackdown against criminal gangs: it’s a political toolkit that leverages anti-establishment anger to justify an authoritarian slide. In deploying strongman tactics to address social c...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump news at a glance: Maryland senator says Ábrego García moved from notorious El Salvador prison

Senator Chris Van Hollen accuses El Salvador’s government of planting margarita glasses to undermine his trip – key US politics stories from Friday 18 April at a glanceMaryland senator Chris Van Hollen revealed that Kilmar Ábrego García had been moved from El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison – where he was sharing a cell with 25 other inmates – to a detention center with better conditions.Van Hollen met with Ábrego García, whom the Trump administration admits it mistakenly deported, and said that he had been left “traumatized” after facing threats in the Cecot facility. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago ICE agents admitted they were arresting ‘the wrong guy’ on NYC street — they deported him anyway

Merwil Gutierrez was deported from The Bronx to brutal El Salvador prison, according to family and attorney

Events

7 d. ago How all of Trump’s gang claims against wrongfully deported man boil down to one unnamed informant

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, languishing in El Salvador mega-prison, accused of being MS-13 member but evidence to substantiate claim is thin, court records reveal

Politics

7 d. ago Donald Trump blasted in blistering court order about wrongly deported Kilmar Ábrego García

Kilmar Ábrego García is currently in an El Salvador mega prison, notorious for housing gang members, but the US government had admitted his deportation was as a result of an "administrative error"

Politics

7 d. ago Appeals court warns of mounting ‘crisis’ over Trump’s refusal to ‘facilitate’ Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return

Reagan-appointed appellate judge slams Trump for trying to ‘stash away residents in foreign prisons’ without due process

Events

8 d. ago What is a ‘criminal’ immigrant? The word is an American rhetorical trap | Jonathan Ben

Allegations of criminality have always been deployed to justify state violence but even ‘imperfect’ victims deserve basic rightsUS politics live – latest updatesLast month, the Trump administration flew 238 Venezuelan immigrants to a brutal prison in El Salvador. Federal officials alleged that the detainees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, calling them “heinous monsters” ,“criminal aliens”, “the worst of the worst”. The federal government has also revoked visas for a thousand international students over their alleged participation in protests against Israel’s genocide in Palestine. Some were abducted, like Mahmoud Khalil, who has spent more than a month incarcerated in one of the worst jails in the US. Officials alleged that Mahmoud “sided with terrorists who have killed innocent men, women, and children”.Media reports quickly revealed that the Trump administration is lying about “innocent” people to justify abducting them. But this raises a more important question: if Trump...

Events

8 d. ago Trump’s gilded Oval Office was the perfect setting for his and Bukele’s grotesque spectacle | Julia Carrie Wong

The president’s penchant for the gaudy has been mocked but the menace beneath was clear when he met El Salvador’s leaderThe Oval Office meeting of Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele on Monday was a grotesque spectacle. Both men, elected to lead nominally democratic countries, have described themselves as dictators, and they exuded that sense of smug impunity. While reporters sought answers on the fate of Kilmar Ábrego García, a 29-year-old father of three who was wrongly deported to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot mega-prison, Trump and Bukele disclaimed responsibility, joked about further deportations, and engaged in casual slander of Ábrego García, who is not, and has never been alleged to be, a terrorist.And then there was the gold. So much gold. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Kilmar Ábrego García’s wife rejects Trump officials’ depictions of him as ‘violent’

Jennifer Vasquez Sura criticizes DHS’s attempt to smear her wrongly deported husband over 2021 civil protective orderWho is Kilmar Ábrego García, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador?The wife of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador, has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s attempt to smear his character, saying a temporary restraining order against him was “out of caution” and that “he is a loving partner and father” who is being denied justice.Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she “acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar” when she got the civil protective order in 2021, according to a statement emailed to the Baltimore Sun. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago 'Death camp' fears in notorious El Salvador prison as horror Google Maps image goes viral

WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: With lawyers unable to reach a US citizen they say is wrongly incarcerated inside El Salvador's CECOT prison, a grim picture showing a red stain has sparked panic

Events

8 d. ago AP PHOTOS: A look at the huge prison in El Salvador linked to US deportations

President Donald Trump’ s administration has acknowledged mistakenly deporting a Maryland man with protected legal status to a notorious El Salvador prison, but is arguing against returning him to the United States because of his alleged gang ties and the U.S. government’s lack of power over the Central American nation.

Events

8 d. ago El Salvador president vows to double size of prison holding US deportees

Donald Trump urged that the prison, which already holds 40,000, be expanded after he threatened to send American citizens who have broken the law

Events

8 d. ago Democrat left red faced after showing up at El Salvador prison to 'rescue' deported 'Maryland man' Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen shared a clip of himself to X before boarding a flight to the country where Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is being held.

Events

9 d. ago Trump’s deportation ‘mistake’: the man trapped in a prison in El Salvador

Kilmar Ábrego García was deported, detained and flown to a notorious prison – before officials admitted they had made an error. Why is he still there? Maanvi Singh reportsKilmar Ábrego García was 16 when he came to the US, after his family were targeted by criminal gangs in his home of El Salvador. He joined his brother in Maryland and started a new life.In 2019, he was arrested by immigration officials and accused of being a gang member, but his lawyers argued there was no evidence for this, pointed out he had no criminal convictions and insisted he should not be sent back to a country where he was himself at risk from criminal gangs. A judge agreed and gave him protected status so he could not be deported. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago Judge rebukes Trump officials for not securing return of wrongly deported man

Administration will have to share under oath how it’s trying to get Kilmar Ábrego García back to US, says district judgeA federal judge sharply rebuked the Trump administration and scolded officials on Tuesday for taking no steps to secure the return of a man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, as the US supreme court had ordered in a contentious ruling last week.The US district judge Paula Xinis said that Donald Trump’s news conference with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, where the leaders joked that Kilmar Ábrego García would not be released, did not count as compliance. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Ice deports Venezuelan teen despite reportedly knowing he was not a target

Merwil Gutiérrez sent from New York to El Salvador prison although family says he has no criminal history or gang tiesA 19-year-old Venezuelan in New York City reportedly was apprehended by Trump administration immigration authorities and deported to El Salvador despite agents’ realizing he was not whom they meant to arrest in a targeted operation.Merwil Gutiérrez, whose family opened an asylum case after arriving in the US, was deported from the Bronx to the notorious Cecot prison in El Salvador despite his relatives’ insistence that he has no gang ties or criminal history, according to Documented, a newsroom dedicated to telling the stories of immigrants in New York City. The Gutiérrez family says it has been left without information or answers. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Donald Trump will NOT return Kilmar Ábrego García who was wrongly deported to gang prison

Kilmar Ábrego García was wrongly deported to El Salvador, where he is currently housed at a notorious gang prison, but pressure grows on Donald Trump to "facilitate" the man's return

Events

1 week ago ‘Home growns are next’: Trump tells El Salvador president to build more jails for U.S. citizens

Trump says he’s ‘all for’ jailing American citizens in El Salvador’s notorious mega prison

Politics