Imprisoner-in-Chief: As El Salvador Grows Closer to the US, It Cracks Down at Home
NEED TO KNOW
Imprisoner-in-Chief: As El Salvador Grows Closer to the US, It Cracks Down at Home
EL SALVADOR
In exchange for imprisoning migrants deported from the United States, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele allegedly asked American officials to extradite top leaders of the MS-13 gang who are currently in American prisons to El Salvador.
The deal was part of an American effort to expel more than 200 Venezuelans to a maximum-security prison in the small Central American country, the infamous Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT). The US paid El Salvador $6 million to house the migrants but Bukele offered a 50 percent discount if American President Donald Trump would send the MS-13 leaders.
At the same time, federal prosecutors have convinced federal courts to dismiss charges against MS-13 leaders to clear administrative hurdles to returning them to El Salvador, Politico wrote. Critics at the Guardian described the move as Trump doing a “favor” for Bukele, whom he has called “one hell of a president.”
Meanwhile, Bukele, who has put 85,000 citizens of his country in jail under a crackdown on crime, has been accused of making deals with criminal gangs to improve public safety and secure his position, the Hudson Institute explained.
In doing so, he did win the gratitude of many El Salvadorans who say they can now live in peace.
That heralded peace may last longer than the Constitution had originally allowed. Last year, Bukele violated term limits to run for a second term. Now, lawmakers have approved constitutional changes that will allow indefinite presidential reelection and extend presidential terms to six years.
Like Trump, Bukele embraces a strongman image. He and Trump publicly rejected any assertion, for example, that the US mistakenly deported an American citizen to El Salvador. The US Supreme Court disagreed, however, saying the transfer of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was unlawful, though he still may face criminal charges in the US.
Despite the setbacks, El Salvador and the US have used the migrant crisis as an opportunity to develop security, intelligence, and military ties between the two countries, too, added Mother Jones magazine. Bukele has deployed Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to muzzle journalists, dissidents, and others who oppose his administration, for example.
He has intensified that crackdown on opponents.
“Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has never concealed his autocratic tendencies… unabashedly (referring) to himself as the world’s coolest dictator, but since enjoying the firm embrace of US President Donald Trump, Bukele has grown emboldened,” wrote World Politics Review. “(Since May), he has intensified his crackdown on critics and accelerated his efforts to suppress dissent, turning the screws on human rights organizations, journalists and civil society at large.”
Recently, Bukele’s government arrested one of the country’s most prominent human rights activists, forced its most heralded human rights group to leave the country, enacted a “foreign agents” law that resembles those in Russia and Nicaragua to weaken civil society, and threatened lawyers and journalists, prompting more of them to flee into exile out of fear of being imprisoned.
That’s because CECOT is likely one of the worst places on the planet, say those who have experienced it firsthand.
Venezuelans released from CECOT and other El Salvadoran jails have shown bruises, rubber bullet wounds, and other injuries, the Organization for World Peace continued. Conditions included sexual violence, excessive solitary confinement, spoiled food and water, and no contact with lawyers or family. Some were disappeared.
CECOT “seemed like it was for animals,” detainee Julio Fernández Sánchez, 35, told the Washington Post. “It was designed for people to go crazy or kill themselves.”
Venezuelan officials under their dictatorial socialist government are now investigating allegations of torture in CECOT and other El Salvadoran prisons that have housed Venezuelan inmates, Consortium News noted. So is an international panel, which will determine whether to refer it to the International Criminal Court.
CECOT’s officers are extremely cruel, say human rights officials and inmates. Formerly consigned to CECOT after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided a house in North Carolina, the recently released Venezuelan musician Arturo Suárez-Trejo said he was beaten for singing in an effort to maintain his humanity and cheer up his cellmates, wrote El País.
“I spent my time singing,” he told the newspaper, adding, “and that way I brightened my life a little and made it brighter for everyone else.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Rwanda Becomes Latest African Country To Accept US Deportees
RWANDA
Rwanda confirmed this week that it will accept up to 250 deportees from the US under a new deal with the Trump administration, becoming the latest country to join Washington’s expanding third-country deportation program, the Associated Press reported.
Rwanda government spokesperson Yolande Makolo confirmed the deal but didn’t provide a timeline for the deportations.
According to the scheme, the migrants would receive “workforce training, health care, and accommodation to jump start their lives in Rwanda,” Makolo confirmed to the BBC.
Rwanda, an East African nation of around 15 million people, will have the right to approve every person considered for resettlement.
Rumors of a deal between Rwanda and the US first arose in May, when Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister said that, having endured a genocide in the mid-1990s, the country is guided by a spirit of offering “another chance” to migrants facing issues in countries across the world.
Makolo said Rwanda proceeded with the deal with the US because many Rwandan families have experienced the challenges of displacement firsthand. She emphasized that the values of Rwandan society are deeply rooted in reintegration and rehabilitation.
Human rights experts, however, warned that deporting migrants to a country that is not their place of origin – known as a third country – could be a violation of international law.
In recent years, Rwanda has positioned itself as a destination for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, Reuters noted. However, the country has faced criticism over its human rights record, with concerns that migrants sent there might be deported again to countries where they could face harm and where they might have no ties and not even speak the language.
The Rwandan government insists it can offer a safe place for these individuals.
Rwanda reached a deal in 2022 with the United Kingdom to take migrants who had traveled to the UK to seek asylum. According to the plan, their asylum claims would be processed in Rwanda, and those approved would remain there instead of returning to the UK.
This controversial agreement faced strong criticism from human rights organizations and was abandoned after the UK’s Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional in 2023.
The US is seeking additional deals with African nations to take in migrants whose home countries have refused to allow them to return. This is part of US President Donald Trump’s plans to expel people he claims entered the country illegally and labeled as “the worst of the worst.”
Eswatini and war-torn South Sudan have already accepted 13 people deported by the US, while Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama have taken in hundreds of Venezuelans and other deportees.
Some analysts say the US has used aid and trade to pressure countries such as South Sudan and Eswatini into taking the deportees.
Lithuanian Government Collapses After Leader Resigns Over Corruption Scandal
LITHUANIA
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda appointed Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius as acting prime minister this week after his predecessor, Gintautas Paluckas, formally resigned amid corruption allegations, triggering the automatic resignation of the executive branch of government, Euronews reported.
Šadžius will serve in a caretaker capacity until a new government is sworn in.
On Wednesday, the ruling Social Democratic Party (LSDP) picked Social Affairs Minister Inga Ruginiene as its candidate for prime minister. Ruginiene still needs to face a confidence vote in parliament and must get lawmakers’ approval for her cabinet program before taking office, Reuters added.
The government changes came a week after Paluckas, who had been prime minister since December 2024, announced he would step down following weeks of political pressure over a scandal involving loans, European Union funds, and alleged questionable business ties linked to the prime minister and his relatives.
The scandal prompted authorities to launch a probe into his business dealings and sparked protests calling for his resignation.
Nausėda gave Paluckas a two-week deadline to address questions over his finances or step down. Pressure also came from the LSDP’s coalition partner, the Union of Democrats “For Lithuania,” which threatened to leave the government if Paluckas remained in office, Politico noted.
Paluckas also resigned as party leader but insisted that he had committed no wrongdoing.
Observers said the center-left LSDP holds a parliamentary majority and is expected to remain in power until the next elections in 2028.
Hong Kong Revokes Passports of Overseas Activists Amid Escalating Crackdown on Dissent
HONG KONG
Hong Kong authorities escalated their crackdown this week on overseas activists they accuse of threatening national security, revoking the passports of 12 dissidents and threatening to prosecute anyone helping them financially, Sky News reported.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau unveiled the new measures Monday, which prohibit anyone from providing financial support, renting property, or doing business with the “absconders,” Al Jazeera wrote. People who violate the restrictions risk up to seven years in prison.
According to the government, these measures target 16 activists now residing in the United Kingdom, US, Canada, Germany, Australia, Thailand, and Taiwan, among other places. They are accused of engaging in activities that threaten national security.
It also invalidated the passports of a dozen activists, rendering them stateless. These individuals were part of a group of 19 people – 12 activists and seven pro-democracy campaigners – who were the target of arrest warrants in July over their alleged involvement in establishing an unofficial parliament overseas.
Hong Kong’s leaders said that the activists’ alleged involvement in the “Hong Kong Parliament” advocacy group amounts to subversion under the Chinese-ruled city’s sweeping national security law.
The group criticized the arrest warrants and bounties for the activists, ranging from about $25,000 to $117,000 for information leading to arrests, saying they are a “blatant abuse of legal instruments to pursue political persecution.”
Foreign governments, including the US, UK, and European Union, have also opposed the arrest warrants.
Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials insist the actions were lawful and justified.
Hong Kong, once famous for its political activism and free press, has significantly restricted dissent since China imposed a broad national security law in 2020, following anti-government protests the year before.
Building on the 2020 law, Hong Kong introduced a local national security law in 2024.
Opposition parties have been virtually erased from the city’s legislature.
DISCOVERIES
Double-Edged Trees
Plants are often praised for their ability to clean the air and fight pollution.
However, they may be polluting the environment while trying to protect themselves from pests.
Scientists have long known that plants secrete isoprene, a natural chemical that they suspected was their way to resist pests, even as researchers weren’t sure how or why they produced this substance.
Now, a new study, 40 years in the making, demonstrates how isoprene repels insects and how plants that don’t usually produce this chemical can secrete it in times of stress.
Under extreme conditions, like very high temperatures, plants use up to 2 percent of their stored carbon to produce more isoprene. Spending so much valuable carbon to produce the chemical, diverting it away from growth and storage, indicates that isoprene must play a crucial role in their survival, according to New Atlas.
To prove this, the team carried out lab experiments.
They genetically engineered tobacco plants to emit isoprene and compared the outcomes with tobacco plants that didn’t produce the chemical. They found that tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) intensively fed on the non-emitting leaves, mostly avoiding the isoprene-emitting ones.
Over a 10-day observation period, researchers monitored the plants’ reaction to the pests and found that they began responding to the pest infestation by producing isoprene within two hours of being attacked.
When the chemical is activated, indigestible proteins kick in, giving insects that snack on the leaves a stomachache. Those proteins also prevent the worms from growing properly.
However, the isoprene itself is not what is toxic to the insects. Instead, it causes a reaction within the plants that raises the levels of Jasmonic acid, making plants’ proteins tough for insects to digest.
“The defense was not the isoprene itself, but the consequence of what isoprene did to the plant,” lead study author Tom Sharkey said in a statement.
However, isoprene adds to air pollution and ranks among the most widely released hydrocarbons on the planet. When released into the atmosphere, this organic compound reacts with sunlight and nitrogen oxides – commonly emitted by vehicles and coal-burning power plants. These reactions form harmful substances like ground-level ozone, aerosols, and other harmful byproducts.
Researchers now face a tough question: “Should we add isoprene to crop plants so that they’re protected against insects and put up with their effect on the ozone?” wondered Sharkey. “Or should we genetically engineer plants to turn off the isoprene synthase as much as we can to improve the atmosphere?”