El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele responded to allegations from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding conditions at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the nation’s maximum-security facility that holds migrants deported from the United States.
Bukele’s response came after Clinton shared a post on X featuring an 11-minute excerpt from the PBS Frontline documentary “Surviving CECOT.”
“Interested in learning more about CECOT?” she wrote. “Listen to Juan, Andry, and Wilmer describe firsthand how the Trump administration labeled them as gang members without proof and sent them to the harsh Salvadoran prison.”
According to the film’s description, the short documentary chronicles the experiences of three Venezuelan men—Juan José Ramos Ramos, Andry Blanco Bonilla, and Wilmer Vega Sandia—whom the Trump administration deported to CECOT.
The U.S. government identified all three as members of the Tren de Aragua gang, a designation they reject.
In reply, Bukele stated that his nation was prepared to cooperate, while addressing accusations that individuals have been tortured in the infamous facility that incarcerates numerous gang members and migrants deported from the U.S.
“We are prepared to release our entire prison population—including all gang leaders and those labeled as ‘political prisoners’—to any nation willing to accept them,” he wrote. “The sole condition is simple: it must be everyone.”
“This would also significantly aid journalists and preferred NGOs, who would gain access to thousands of former prisoners for interviews, vastly simplifying the search for more voices to criticize the Salvadoran government—or to validate pre-determined conclusions,” Bukele added. “Certainly, if these accounts represent a systemic issue, a broader source base would only strengthen the argument, and numerous governments should be willing to provide sanctuary.”
Until that happens, he added, El Salvador will keep prioritizing the human rights of the millions of Salvadorans who now live without gang oppression,” Bukele stated.
Bukele strengthened his ties with President Donald Trump by proposing to accommodate certain migrants deported from the U.S. at CECOT. The U.S. has sent Venezuelan migrants identified as gang members to El Salvador after Venezuela declined to repatriate them.
On Monday, a federal judge directed the Trump administration to grant due process to a group of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador in March, giving it two weeks to explain its methodology—creating another major confrontation between the White House and the judiciary.