El Salvador says Paris fashion show ‘glorifies' criminals
SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador's government on Saturday criticized a Paris Fashion Week show that made references to inmates at the country's CECOT mega-prison, with President Nayib Bukele joking that he could send prisoners to France.
At Mexican American designer Willy Chavarria's show in Paris on Friday, the white T-shirts and shorts worn by his models invoked the uniforms worn by inmates at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Bukele had the maximum-security prison built to hold gang members nabbed in his war against organized crime.
Also imprisoned at CECOT are 252 Venezuelans deported from the United States and accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
'We're ready to ship them all to Paris whenever we get the green light from the French government,' Bukele wrote in response to an X post that said Chavarria was paying tribute to CECOT prisoners.
The president's press secretariat said Bukele's post showed his 'firm stance against the attempt to glorify criminality.'
Since March 2022, Bukele has run an offensive against gangs under a state of emergency that allows arrests without a warrant.
The Trump administration has paid Bukele's government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members.
US President Donald Trump invoked a rarely used wartime legislation in March to fly migrants to El Salvador without any court hearing.
Lawyers for the Venezuelans deported to CECOT say the charges are without basis and the inmates are victims of physical and emotional torture.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
10 hours ago
- Arab News
El Salvador says Paris fashion show ‘glorifies' criminals
SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador's government on Saturday criticized a Paris Fashion Week show that made references to inmates at the country's CECOT mega-prison, with President Nayib Bukele joking that he could send prisoners to France. At Mexican American designer Willy Chavarria's show in Paris on Friday, the white T-shirts and shorts worn by his models invoked the uniforms worn by inmates at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Bukele had the maximum-security prison built to hold gang members nabbed in his war against organized crime. Also imprisoned at CECOT are 252 Venezuelans deported from the United States and accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. 'We're ready to ship them all to Paris whenever we get the green light from the French government,' Bukele wrote in response to an X post that said Chavarria was paying tribute to CECOT prisoners. The president's press secretariat said Bukele's post showed his 'firm stance against the attempt to glorify criminality.' Since March 2022, Bukele has run an offensive against gangs under a state of emergency that allows arrests without a warrant. The Trump administration has paid Bukele's government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members. US President Donald Trump invoked a rarely used wartime legislation in March to fly migrants to El Salvador without any court hearing. Lawyers for the Venezuelans deported to CECOT say the charges are without basis and the inmates are victims of physical and emotional torture.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Guatemala's president denies new asylum deal with US
Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo said Friday he has not signed an agreement with the United States to take asylum seekers from other countries, pushing back against comments from US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem and Arévalo met Thursday in Guatemala and the two governments publicly signed a joint security agreement that would allow US Customs and Border Protection officers to work in the capital's airport, training local agents how to screen for terrorism suspects. But Noem said she had also been given a signed document she called a safe third country agreement. She said she reached a similar deal in Honduras and said they were important outcomes of her trip. 'Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well,' Noem said. 'We've never believed that the United States should be the only option, that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It doesn't necessarily have to be the United States.' Asked about Noem's comments Friday during a news conference, Arévalo said that nothing new was signed related to immigration and that Guatemala was still operating under an agreement reached with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February. That agreement stipulated that Guatemala would continue accepting the deportation of its own citizens, but also citizens of other Central American nations as a transit point on their way home. Arévalo said that when Rubio visited, safe third country was discussed because Guatemala had signed such an agreement during US President Donald Trump's first term in office. But 'we made it clear that our path was different,' Arévalo said. He did add that Guatemala was willing to provide asylum to Nicaraguans who have been unable to return to their country because of the political situation there out of 'solidarity.' The president's communications office said Noem had been given the ratification of the agreement reached through diplomatic notes weeks earlier. During Trump's first term, the US signed such safe third-country agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They effectively allowed the US to declare some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for US protection and permitted the US government to send them to those countries deemed 'safe.'
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia Ask Judge to Keep Him in Jail Over Deportation Concerns
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of contradictory statements by the Trump administration over whether or not he'll be deported upon release. A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she's been holding off over concerns that US immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again. Abrego Garcia's attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by Trump administration officials 'because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the Justice Department. The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,' the attorneys wrote. Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump's hard-line immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, Trump's administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called 'preposterous.' Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press on Thursday that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him, stating that Abrego Garcia 'has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again.' Hours earlier, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland that the US government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country that isn't El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans. Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote in their filing on Friday that Guynn's statements were 'the first time the government has represented to anyone that it intended not to deport Mr. Abrego back to El Salvador following a trial on these charges but to deport him to a third country immediately.' The filing by Abrego Garcia's lawyers also cited a post on X on Thursday from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson: 'Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him,' Jackson stated. 'He will face the full force of the American justice system–including serving time in American prison for the crimes he's committed.' Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote Friday the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back only to convict him in the 'court of public opinion.' 'In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,' his attorneys wrote. 'And yet the government–a government that has at all levels told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face American justice–apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.' Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage. US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville wrote in a ruling Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community. During a court hearing Wednesday, Holmes set specific conditions for Abrego Garcia's release that included him living with his brother, a US citizen, in Maryland. But she held off on releasing him over concerns that prosecutors can't prevent US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him. Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia's lawyers and prosecutors to file briefs on the matter Thursday and Friday, respectively.
