"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 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."
"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."
U.S. officials arranged in March to transfer MS-13 leaders who had served as informants to El Salvador as part of a deal to incarcerate hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants at El Salvador's CECOT. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to President Nayib Bukele that the United States would release nine MS-13 leaders to El Salvador. Several of those leaders had previously provided testimony alleging ties between members of Bukele's government and the gang and had been promised protection. One informant, César López-Larios, was returned two days after the call. Bukele viewed the return as protecting his reputation and impeding a U.S. investigation.
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