El Salvador takes aim at becoming an 'international prison for hire' to any country interested
In an interview with local media, Vice-President Félix Ulloa also undermines Trump legal claims involving migrants detained at CECOT
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El Salvador’s vice-president Félix Ulloa, in a wide-ranging interview with local media on May 6, detailed plans to offer the country as an international ‘prison-for-rent’ to any country interested.
“Any country can request the services of El Salvador's penitentiary facilities,” he told the Grand Continente reporter. “We do not see this as an issue of international law or international conflict insofar as it is supported by the provision of a service.” Decisions about convictions or legality are “not made by El Salvador; it is qualified by the State that requests the provision of the service,” he continued.
The position not only abdicates El Salvador of any responsibility of due process or confirming that a detainee has committed a crime, it also contradicts legal claims by the U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States no longer has jurisdiction over the more than 300 prisoners deported from the country that are now held at Salvador prison CECOT.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, in comments on X , pointed out that Ulloa’s comments “expose the Trump admin for lying in court about the status of people imprisoned there by ICE.” Reichlin-Melnick points out that the argument by the El Salvador VP to avoid obligations of international law regarding jurisdiction runs “contrary to the DOJ’s official representations, that the United States controls what happens to people locked up in CECOT without trial.”
Ulloa, in the interview, says it is “with great pleasure” that El Salvador is prepared to offer prison services to “countries like Spain and France”. He states that preliminary negotiations have already begun with Ecuador. Ecuadorian right-wing President Daniel Naboa has tried, unsuccessfully, to emulate Bukele’s “iron fist” security policies.
“We are providing a service that we could call prison lodging,” said Ulloa. “It is as if a person comes to El Salvador and asks for medical treatment; we have medical tourism for people who come for dental treatment, etc.”
Ulloa also claimed that in addition to receiving payment from third countries for “lodging” prisoners, El Salvador would benefit from their free labor as part of “Zero Leisure” policy that gives inmates “the inmates the possibility of learning new ways of working or developing new trades for some of them in baking, agriculture, tailoring, carpentry.”
El Salvador has arrested 85,000 people since Bukele declared a “temporary” state of emergency three years ago, the majority of whom have not been formally accused of a crime, but are rather detained while they await due process. In the meantime, many are forced to perform labor in industries launched by the El Salvadoran government or private companies working in tandem with prison officials.
In the interview, the reporter from the Grand Continente asks Ulloa, “Isn’t this a form of extreme vassalization towards the United States, and doesn’t it even imply a problem of sovereignty for you?”
Ulloa responds that El Salvador is merely performing a “service.” “As members of a foreign government, we can never express an opinion on the internal affairs of another State and, therefore, we cannot make assessments,” he claims, suggesting that El Salvador is simply respecting the sovereignty of the U.S. as part of a financial interaction.
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