Last week, the United States admitted it had wrongfully deported 29-year-old Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has now joined the burgeoning population of El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which specialises in terrorising confined people. Married to a US citizen and the father of a five-year-old autistic child, Abrego Garcia arrived in the US more than a decade ago after fleeing gang violence at home.
The CECOT is the pride and joy of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s self-proclaimed “coolest dictator in the world”, who delights in posting extravagant Hollywood-worthy videos of the sadistic reception and internment of the deportee “terrorists” that the Donald Trump administration is now funneling to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia is one of hundreds of new such additions to the CECOT facility – where it appears he may remain, despite the administration’s full acknowledgement that his deportation transpired “because of an administrative error”.
When the judge overseeing the case of the wrongful deportation determined that Trump and company must return Abrego Garcia to the US, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt snapped: “We suggest the Judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador.” READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH