El Salvador recalls ambassador to Mexico after drug trafficking claims
Bukele, in a post on X, said that the Mexican government needed to clarify and rectify the comments made by Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch.
Garcia Harfuch, speaking in a morning press conference on Tuesday, had claimed that a small plane flown by drug traffickers had come from El Salvador before being intercepted in the Mexican state of Colima.
Bukele shared a map of the plane's alleged flight path, which showed it appearing off the coast of Costa Rica - to the south of El Salvador - before heading north across the Pacific.
"The plane flew over the Pacific Ocean and never touched Salvadoran territory," he said.
According to Mexican authorities, the three men aboard were arrested and 427 kilograms of cocaine were seized after the plane landed in Colima.
Bukele said that the men were all Mexican, "something no media outlet or official source has published so far."
"El Salvador does not hide criminals or tolerate drug trafficking; we didn't do that before, and we won't do that now," Bukele said. "Nor will we allow them to try to involve us in operations that are not our responsibility."
Mexico's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
Venezuela opens an investigation into El Salvador's Bukele for alleged mistreatment of migrants
Venezuela's attorney general's office said Monday it has opened an investigation into El Salvador 's President Nayib Bukele for alleged mistreatment and human rights violations against Venezuelan migrants. The migrants in question spent months detained in a maximum-security prison in the Central American country after being deported by the United Sates. Attorney General Tarek William Saab said his office decided to open the probe after some of the migrants informed Venezuelan authorities of the alleged mistreatment. The investigation includes El Salvador's Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro and the head of the prison system, Osiris Luna. More than 250 migrants were held since March in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. They were released on Friday by El Salvador in exchange for 10 U.S. nationals jailed in Venezuela, and as part of a three-country arrangement.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ecuadorian drug lord 'Fito' pleads not guilty after being extradited to New York
The head of a violent Ecuadorian gang accused of smuggling cocaine and firearms between South America and the U.S. pleaded not guilty to drug and gun charges Monday in New York. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is 'Fito,' appeared in federal court in Brooklyn a day after Ecuador extradited him to the U.S. A judge ordered him detained until trial and set his next court date for Sept. 19. U.S. prosecutors accuse Macías of leading the vicious Los Choneros gang that used hitmen, bribes and military weapons, including machine guns and grenades. The hitmen, or sicarios, murdered, tortured and kidnapped people in Ecuador as the gang committed violence against law enforcement, politicians, attorneys, prosecutors and civilians, authorities said. Los Choneros also worked with Mexican drug cartels to ship cocaine from Colombian suppliers through Ecuador and Central America to the U.S., and shipped firearms from the U.S. to South America, prosecutors said. 'Macías Villamar poses an extraordinary danger to the community,' U.S. prosecutors wrote in a request that Macías be detained without bail until trial. 'The Court should enter a permanent order of detention, as no condition or combination of conditions can assure the safety of the community or assure Macías Villamar's appearance at trial.' Macías' lawyer, Alexei Schacht, who entered the not guilty pleas on Macías' behalf, did not immediately return phone and email messages Monday. Macías escaped from a prison in Ecuador in January 2024 and wasn't caught until last month, when he was found in an underground bunker at a relative's mansion in the port city of Manta. He was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder when he escaped. He also fled from a maximum-security prison in February 2013 but was recaptured a few weeks later. Los Choneros emerged in the 1990s and Macías has been its leader since 2020, authorities said. Macías cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to 'the Ecuadorian people' while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. A federal grand jury in New York City indicted him on seven charges in April and returned an updated indictment in late June. The charges include international cocaine distribution conspiracy, use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking and straw purchasing of firearms conspiracy. If convicted, he could face 20 years to life in prison. "The defendant and his co-conspirators flooded the United States and other countries with drugs and used extreme measures of violence in their quest for power and control,' Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Venezuela to investigate alleged torture of its citizens in El Salvador jail
Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek Saab, said on Monday that his office would investigate El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, and two other officials for the alleged abuse of Venezuelans detained in the country. More than 250 Venezuelans held in El Salvador's notorious Cecot prison returned to Venezuela on Friday under the terms of a prisoner exchange agreed with the US. Detainees suffered human rights abuses ranging from sexual abuse to beatings, were denied medical care or treated without anaesthesia and given food and water that made them ill, Saab said at a press conference. As well as Bukele, Venezuela would investigate El Salvador's justice minister, Gustavo Villatoro, and its head of prisons, Osiris Luna Meza, Saab said, after showing videos of former detainees recounting torture and showing injuries - including a missing molar, bruising and scars - they said were the result of the abuse. Bukele's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not immediately able confirm the assertions made in the videos, but two of those shown speaking were identifiable as former Cecot detainees. The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the US in March after Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without normal immigration procedures. The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and led to a legal battle with the Trump administration. Family members and lawyers of many of the men deny they had gang ties. The former detainees arrived near Caracas on Friday, where some were reunited with their families, but they have not yet returned to their own homes. Yajaira Fuenmayor, the mother of the returned detainee Alirio Guillermo Belloso, said on Sunday afternoon from her home in Maracaibo that she was preparing him arepas, traditional corn cakes, as a welcome. 'I can't stop thinking of the hunger my son went through. I have a salad ready, some grilled arepas because he loves them, and there is fish in the refrigerator to fry,' she said. The government has said the men will be medically evaluated and interviewed before being released. It has always said the El Salvador detentions were illegal and that only seven of the men had serious criminal records. The Venezuelan opposition has regularly criticised the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, and his government for holding activists and others in similar conditions in Venezuela. The US said last week that 80 Venezuelans would be released from Venezuelan jails as part of the deal, under which 10 US citizens held in Venezuela were also to be freed. Forty-eight Venezuelan political prisoners have so far been released, the legal rights advocacy group Foro Penal said earlier on Monday on X. 'We regret the absence of an official list that allows us to verify with more precision,' the group said, adding that some lists in circulation had included people not classed as political detainees, people who had already been released and even prisoners who had died. 'At Foro Penal we remain in coordination with families working to verify other cases.' The communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about who is to be released and whether any of them will be subject to house arrest or other alternatives to detention. The main opposition coalition in Venezuela has cheered the release of the prisoners, but said on Sunday that nearly 1,000 people were still in jail in Venezuela for political reasons and that 12 others had been arrested in recent days in what it called a 'revolving door' for political prisoners.
