Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador since 2019, announced on March 16, 2025, the transfer of 238 Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a state-of-the-art, maximum-security prison constructed in 2022. This move, detailed in a post on X, marks a significant escalation in El Salvador’s large-scale gang crackdown, initiated under Bukele’s leadership, and deepens collaboration with the United States. The transfer also included 23 MS-13 gang members, including two high-ranking leaders, sought by Salvadoran authorities, reinforcing efforts to dismantle transnational crime networks.
Notorious Gangs’ Global Reach Exposed
Tren de Aragua, designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. in February 2025, originated in Venezuela’s Aragua state and has expanded globally, engaging in human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and money laundering across Latin America, the U.S., and beyond. With an estimated 5,000 members, the gang operates from prisons like Tocorón in Venezuela, using them as de facto headquarters. MS-13, formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants, has grown into a formidable force in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and U.S. cities, notorious for violence and extortion, with deep ties to drug routes.
U.S. Funding Supports Prison Innovation
Under the agreement, the U.S. will pay El Salvador a fee to incarcerate these criminals, funding Bukele’s innovative Zero Idleness program. This initiative engages over 40,000 inmates in workshops—producing furniture, clothing, and other goods—aiming to make the prison system self-sustainable and reduce its annual $200 million cost. Bukele’s strategy has transformed El Salvador from one of the world’s most dangerous nations into the safest in the Americas, though it has drawn scrutiny for human rights concerns, including allegations of torture at CECOT and the jailing of thousands, some innocent, during the crackdown.
