By Steve Neavling
Days before the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele demanded the return of nine imprisoned MS-13 leaders from the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed during a March 13 phone call, according to officials familiar with the conversation. But some of the men Bukele wanted were protected informants cooperating with U.S. law enforcement, The Washington Post reports. Rubio reportedly told Bukele that Attorney General Pam Bondi would cancel their protection deals so the men could be sent back.
The exchange was part of a broader agreement granting the Trump administration access to El Salvador’s new “Terrorism Confinement Center,” or CECOT, a key facility for Trump’s plan to carry out what he has called “the largest deportation in American history.”
For Bukele, reclaiming the informants was seen as critical to preserving his anti-gang image and silencing potential witnesses to alleged secret pacts between his government and MS-13.
“The deal is a deep betrayal of U.S. law enforcement, whose agents risked their lives to apprehend the gang members,” said Douglas Farah, a U.S. contractor who helped investigate MS-13.
At least three of the gang leaders had shared evidence implicating Salvadoran officials in those pacts, sources said. One of them, César López Larios, accused of overseeing MS-13’s U.S. operations, was deported to El Salvador just two days after Rubio’s call. Others remain in U.S. custody, uncertain whether they’ll be handed over to the government they helped expose.
