By MATTHEW LEE, AP Diplomatic Author
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned Tuesday that El Salvador’s provide to just accept and jail violent American criminals raises clear authorized points however described it as “very generous” and mentioned that President Donald Trump would decide on whether or not to just accept it.
A day earlier, Rubio reached an uncommon settlement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to just accept U.S. deportees of any nationality, together with Americans who’re imprisoned for violent crimes.
Rubio met Chaves and mentioned immigration — a Trump administration precedence — as America’s prime diplomat additionally faces main upheaval on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth that has left many on the help company and the State Division uneasy and fearful for his or her jobs.
It comes a day after he met with Bukele, who confirmed the provide in a submit on X, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.” He mentioned his nation would settle for solely “convicted criminals” and would cost a payment that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
The State Division describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” Its nation info webpage says, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
El Salvador has lived underneath a state of emergency since March 2022, when the nation’s highly effective avenue gangs went on a killing rampage. Bukele responded by suspending basic rights like entry to attorneys, and authorities have arrested greater than 83,000 individuals with little to no due course of.
In 2023, Bukele opened an enormous new jail with capability for 40,000 gang members and reduce prisoners’ meals to twice a day. Prisoners there don’t obtain visits, and there are not any applications getting ready them for reinsertion into society after their sentences and no workshops or academic applications.
El Salvador, as soon as some of the harmful international locations on the earth, closed final yr with a file low 114 homicides, a newfound safety that has propelled Bukele’s hovering reputation within the nation of about 6 million residents.
Migration has been the highest difficulty for Rubio’s five-nation Central American tour spanning Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic following stops in Panama and El Salvador.
Whereas Rubio was out of the U.S. this week, USAID staffers and Democratic lawmakers had been blocked from its Washington headquarters Monday after Elon Musk, which is operating a budget-slashing Division of Authorities Effectivity, introduced Trump had agreed with him to close the help company.
1000’s of USAID staff already had been laid off and applications worldwide shut down. Rubio informed reporters in San Salvador that he was now the appearing administrator of USAID however had delegated that authority so he wouldn’t be operating its day-to-day operations.
In a letter Rubio despatched to lawmakers that was obtained by The Related Press, he mentioned the State Division would work with Congress “to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices and missions of USAID.”
He mentioned the processes on the company, which has been hit by Trump’s freeze on all overseas help, usually are not nicely coordinated and that “undermines the President’s ability to carry out foreign relations.”
“In consultation with Congress, USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law,” Rubio wrote.
AP reporters Christopher Sherman in Mexico Metropolis and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.
Initially Revealed: February 4, 2025 at 12:40 PM EST
