The celebrity clientele says a lot about how far this once-sleepy village has come. El Zonte first attracted local and international surfers in the 1990s, drawn to the consistent waves and tight knit community. (The town was largely spared from lingering violence of a civil war between the military and left-leaning guerrillas that ended in 1992.) And despite El Salvador's struggling economy-the country, which is about the size of New Jersey, has one of the highest poverty rates in Latin America-
The segment, which has been reviewed by The Verge, is a little shy of 14 minutes long. It features video of men, chained and bent double, being "paraded in front of cameras, pushed onto buses, and delivered to CECOT," according to the segment's narration. One former detainee, who CBS met in Colombia, said he was told he was "the living dead" at CECOT.
Ifirst heard the expression "strategic incompetence" in El Salvador in December 1993. Along with my partner and two friends, I'd been recruited to do some electoral training there. We were working with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, a coalition of leftist parties that had led a long-running guerrilla war against a series of US-backed autocratic governments. I'd visited El Salvador once before, during the 1989 elections, when armed troops were overseeing the voting.
Claudia Ortiz, 38, has become the most visible political figure in the opposition to Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Her political capital is far from matching the president's propaganda machine and overwhelming popularity, but today she is the only leader in the country mentioned as a possible option for a possible post-Bukele era. The outlook, in any case, seems distant. Bukele maintains control over all three branches of government, including the Legislative Assembly, where Ortiz is a representative.
"We are demanding that the administration bring back everyone from CECOT to the United States, release them ICE custody, return them to their homes and families and allow them their day in court."
The Trump administration's attempt to dismiss charges against MS-13 leader Arevalo-Chavez highlights potential political collusion with El Salvador's president, stirring controversy over foreign policy priorities.
