The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced on Sunday the deportation of about 250 people to El Salvador under the law of foreign enemies of the 18th century invoked the eve. The president of that country, Nayib Bukele, had offered to imprison them in their prisons and has confirmed the internment of 238 Venezuelans in a maximum security prison in the Central American country.
The Salvadoran leader had requested in recent weeks the new US administration to send “two dangerous leaders” of the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) “and 21 of his most wanted to appear before justice in his country”, something that the head of US diplomacy claimed to have fulfilled.
In exchange for these deliveries, Rubio detailed in the social network X (formerly Twitter) that Bukele has offered to keep the deportees, whom the US accuses of being members of the Aragua train, declared by the US government as a terrorist group, “in its excellent prisons at a fair price”, which in its opinion “will also save money” to taxpayers of the North American country.
“Once again, President Bukele has shown that he is not only the strongest security leader in our region, but also a great friend of the United States,” the head of US diplomacy added in a statement. Rubio defends that Donald Trump “is fulfilling the promises he made to the American people” and that the expulsion of “hundreds of violent criminals” would never have occurred under any other American president.
Bukele confirmed the arrival of the 238 Venezuelans through a message on the same social network, as well as their “immediate” transfer to the prison called Terrorism Confinement Center for a period of one year.
The US president, Donald Trump, has described these alleged members of the Aragua Train of “Monsters” and thanked Bukele with the support provided In a message posted on your social network Truth Social: “These are the monsters that the corrupt Joe Biden and the radical left Democrats sent to our country. How do they dare! ”He said, before thanking Bukele’s” understanding “:” We will not forget it! ”
To accelerate deportations against these alleged members of the Venezuelan organization of Aragua, Trump decided this Saturday to apply the Law of Foreign Enemies, which dates back to 1798 and had not been invoked since World War II (1939-1945).
It is an authority that in times of war allows to stop or deport the citizens of an enemy nation without prior audience and, under it, all Venezuelans over 14 years of age who are considered to belong to that band, are in the US and are not naturalized or are permanent legal residents are subject to being detained, retained and expelled as foreign enemies.
Shortly after, a federal judge from Washington, magistrate James Boasberg, had issued an order to precautionary block the deportation of any migrant person under this law of three centuries ago. After that, he expanded his veto to cover all migrants in custody of the United States who would be subject to said regulations.
The magistrate forced in this order, that it will be in force for 14 days or until again notice, that every plane with those people on board, that was going to take off or were in the air, was forced to return to the United States, something that has not happened on this occasion. According to the American digital newspaper Axios, the White House has consciously ignored this court order, citing as a source a Trump administration official, who points out that the matter will arrive at the Supreme Court.
According to Axios, Trump’s advisors argue that federal judge James Boasberg exceeded his authority when issuing this order, although another source defends the acting of the White House claiming that the court order arrived “too late” so that the planes could change their course and that their administration is not “actively challenging” the orders of a court. The truth is that, as an American activist pointed out that monitor issues related to immigration, at the time of issuance of the order the flights had not yet landed in El Salvador.
The American Union of Civil Liberties (ACLU) has already requested the US Executive to demonstrate that these deportations have not violated the judicial block issued on Saturday against the application of the foreign enemies law. “We have asked the Government to assure the court that its order was not violated and we are waiting for the hearing, in addition to trying to conduct our own investigation,” explained in a statement collected by EFE the main lawyer of the ACLU, Lee Gelernt.
As established by the letter signed by Donald Trump, we want to use the law to persecute Venezuelan migrants related to the Aragua train, but as at least three people of Venezuelan nationality have been published in February, they have been arrested under the argument of being related to the criminal gang despite their relatives denounced otherwise. These people were sent to Guantanamo and have no criminal record that associates them with the Aragua train, something that the Government does, which has not given public information about the detainees on the island. The only common feature shared by the three men arrested is that they had tattoos.
Caracas rejects deportations
The Venezuelan government has rejected this Sunday the decision of the US President and considers that “criminalize, in an infamous and unfair way,” Venezuelan migrants. Through a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of the Latin American country, Venezuela has expressed its overwhelming rejection of the use of the Law of Foreign Enemies, which qualifies as “anachronistic law, violation of human and illegal rights.”
The Executive led by Nicolás Maduro considers that this decision “evokes the darkest episodes of the history of humanity” and denounces a “persecution” about Venezuelans in the United States. “Never in history had reached the point of pretending to qualify in an official document and in a summary document to children as members of terrorist groups,” emphasizes the Foreign Ministry in the statement.
“They are not terrorists, they are not criminals or ‘foreign enemies’. They are victims, ”defends the Bolivarian government, which also accuses opposition leaders to request“ again and again ”the application of“ unilateral ”measures, as well as create a“ Coyotes criminal network ”. In addition, he insists that Venezuelans who abandoned the country did it to find “life alternatives” and for economic reasons whose cause attributes to the “criminal block” exerted on Venezuela by the United States.
“There will be no space in multilateral institutions and in its bilateral relations to which Venezuela does not come to thoroughly defend the rights of its migrants,” adds the statement, in which it advances that Venezuela will go to international institutions to deal with a decision that considers “a dangerous precedent” against the entire region.
Source: www.eldiario.es
