The Trump administration promised to transfer key MS-13 leaders who were acting as informants on the gang in March as part of a deal for the U.S. to imprison hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, this spring, new reporting finds.
According to The Washington Post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele days before the administration would deport the immigrants to El Salvador to strike the deal. He pledged to Bukele that the U.S. would release nine MS-13 leaders to El Salvador. Some of these leaders were acting as informants to the U.S., and therefore had been given promises that they would be protected by the government.
For years, Bukele has sought to block witnesses from testifying on alleged ties between his government and the gang. At least three of the MS-13 leaders Rubio promised in the deal had previously given testimony that some members of Bukele’s government had ties to the gang, per the report.
One of those apparent informants, César López-Larios, who American prosecutors have charged with leading U.S. MS-13 activities, was sent back to El Salvador just two days after the call. The rest are still in the U.S. awaiting potential deportation.
“For the Salvadoran president, a return of the informants was viewed as critical to preserving his tough-on-crime reputation. It was also a key step in hindering an ongoing U.S. investigation into his government’s relationship with MS-13, a gang famous for displays of excessive violence in the United States and elsewhere,” the report says.
In return, Bukele’s government granted the U.S. access to CECOT, where the administration sent over 280 men, disappearing them from their communities with little to no evidence of the administration’s claims of criminal activity. Over 250 were later freed in a different deal, but sent to Venezuela, rather than being returned to their communities in the U.S. CECOT is notorious for its torture and horrific conditions.
The Post’s reporting appears to be the first to reveal that there were informants included in the deal, the broad strokes of which have previously been reported in other capacities.
Experts said that the undercutting of informants not only harms the Trump administration’s supposed ability to go after MS-13, despite having designated them as a terrorist group, but also the credibility of federal law enforcement in making deals for information in other cases.
The report further undermines the Trump administration’s claims that they are focused on combating gangs — a supposed goal that administration officials and the president have used to justify their unprovoked attacks in the Caribbean and the ongoing federal raids of communities across the U.S.
“Trump and his cronies say they want to take down MS-13, but behind closed doors they’re conspiring with Bukele to hide evidence of his government’s collusion with MS-13 — all so he can imprison individuals disappeared from the U.S. in violation of their due process rights,” wrote Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland). “Shameful.”
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