El Salvador wants to put US offenders in a mega prison

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Lerato Khumalo

Donald Trump uses customs threats to put other countries under pressure. The EU now sends him a warning. All developments in the news blog.

6.07: Tech billionaire Elon Musk received an official status in Washington in his role as Donald Trump’s cost lower. He is a “special government agent,” says the spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt. All applicable laws have also been complied with, she says without further details.

It is the first time that the White House comments on what legal basis Musk is currently acting in Washington. US President Trump had entrusted him with the lowering of government spending. For this purpose, a body called Doge (“Department of Government Efficiency”) was founded after a name proposal from Musk. It is a body connected to the White House.

It is still not known whether Musk has an official title at Doge. He has been commenting on his online platform X for days how he and Doge shorten the government spending. Among other things, he left no doubt that he drove the extensive closure of the development agency USAID.

6.03 a.m.: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) pays Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum respect. “She acted cool,” he says after an EU summit in Brussels with a view of the customs dispute with the USA. He previously said that the Mexican President was a very clever politician.

5.30 p.m.: El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has agreed to include US hardships of all nationality and American violent criminals in a mega prison. Bukele promised to record and detain criminal illegal immigrants from all countries, the spokeswoman for the US State Department, Tammy Bruce, said after a meeting of Minister Marco Rubio with the Salvadorian president: “In an extraordinary gesture that never before Land was granted, offered President Bukele to accommodate dangerous American criminals in his prisons, including US citizens and people with a legal stay. “

“We offered the United States the opportunity to outsource part of their prison system,” said Bukele about the platform X. El Salvador is ready to include only convicted criminals-including convicted US citizens-for a fee to her mega prison “Cecot” (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo). “The fee would be relatively low for the United States, but significant for us, so that our entire prison system would be sustainable,” said Bukele.

In El Salvador, a new large prison complex was opened in the fight against violent gangs two years ago. Up to 40,000 prisoners should be detained there. Pictures of captivated prisoners in white shorts, the barefoot and with tattooed upper bodies entered the prison, at the time went around the world. The murder rate then decreased significantly in the Central American country. However, human rights activists also speak of arbitrary arrests.

4.25 a.m.: After the sudden agreement between the USA, Canada and Mexico, many in Washington and the rest of the world ask the question: Who has decided this customs dispute for themselves? While the US President presents himself as a strong man who has struggled with his opponents, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum react with remarkable adaptability. Among other things, both announced that 10,000 soldiers against illegal migration and drug smuggling to send their limits – a move that at first glance looks like a buckle in front of Trump. But in truth they play their own game. Read more about it here.