Latest news with #ElSalvador
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How ‘murder capital' El Salvador became one of the world's hottest (and safest) destinations
One year, you're a 'murder capital', echoing to the sound of gunshots, the next you're a booming tourist magnet. El Salvador, according to the latest United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) statistics, is the world's third fastest-growing holiday destination, behind only Albania and Qatar. The small Central American country has seen tourist numbers jump an impressive 80 per cent since 2019. Some 3.2 million international visitors arrived in 2024, including more than 1.2 million US tourists. Having visited in 2013 and 2017, I'm actually not that surprised. While El Salvador is unlikely to knock Costa Rica off its perch as an entry-level Central American destination, it has plenty of diverse delights to offer the curious tourist. Let's start with the attractions. For nature-lovers, the El Imposible National Park is a great starting point. The name refers not to the chances of rescuing a lost tourist but to a steep gorge that was a much-unloved slog for local farmers with their mules. The hiking here is pretty good, if hot, but the park's main attraction is the birdlife. Among the 300 or so species are glittering hummingbirds, multi-hued motmots, orioles and parakeets; it's the only place in the country to see the critically endangered great curassow. Surfers have been loving El Salvador for decades. In 2024, the country hosted six major international surf events – including the prestigious World Surf League competition, cementing its reputation as one of the top surfing destinations in the world. Punta Roca and Las Flores are world-famous – and stunning to look at if you're not a surfer. La Libertad, Playa El Tunco, El Sunzal, and El Zonte, all in the west, attract lots of wave-addicts, but there are scores of less promoted spots on the coast. Because distances are relatively small, it's easy to hop from break to break. San Salvador is a sprawling, modern, American-looking city – better for burgers and pizzas than for pupusas, the delicious flatbreads filled with pork, cheese and beans that are Salvadorean's favourite snack. It doesn't have big-capital drawing power, but to be frank, apart from Antigua in Guatemala and Panama City, Central America is not big on urban attractions. The plazas and backstreets down town are worth a wander, with coffee shops to refuel, and cool down, in. The brutalist El Rosario church is eye-catching; the rainbow-coloured interior has been dubbed the 'stairway to heaven'. Marte, the main art museum, is always hosting interesting themed shows; it has a section on the 1979-1992 civil war. It's also the site of the striking Monument to the 1948 Revolution. A safe bet The main point here, though, is that, apart from the airport, foreign tourists never really came to San Salvador. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) puts it plainly: 'Security in El Salvador has improved considerably with significant reductions in crime'. The gang crackdown and controversial draconian security measures imposed by the government of president Nayib Bukele – who won a second term in 2024, with 84 per cent of the vote – has seen the national homicide count fall from 6,657 in 2015 to 114 in 2024. It has gone from having one of the highest murder rates in the world (106.3 per 100,000 in 2015) to one only slightly higher than the UK's. Last year, as a consequence, the United States Department of State upgraded El Salvador's travel advisory status from Level 3 (Reconsider Travel) to Level 2 (Exercise Increased Caution). Just 30 miles to the north of the capital is my favourite place in El Salvador. Suchitoto, set amid rich, rolling agricultural land, is not grand or swoon-inducingly pretty, but it is cobbled, quaint and polished. A bolthole for middle-class Salvadorans escaping the big city, it has cultural spaces, cafés and restaurants and a gorgeous church on the plaza. It hosts an international film festival every autumn, and I can heartily recommend its lively and fun-filled fiesta honouring Santa Lucia, the town's patron saint, in December. The former mansion where I like to stay here, Los Almendros de San Lorenzo, was built in 1805 when El Salvador was still part of the Spanish Empire. Owners Joaquín Rodezno and Pascal Lebailly have created somewhere comfortable, even luxurious, but which still feels aged and atmospheric. Tropical gardens and a pool mean you have to make an effort to wrench yourself away from the place and go and explore. In 1983, Joan Didion's short sharp Salvador brought the bloody story of the civil war to an international readership. It was reported in the UK – the BBC's Jeremy Bowen started his career in El Salvador – but, like almost all things Latin American, it was always a remote affair. Liberation theology, Marxist guerrillas and US and USSR machinations in the region were exotic topics in the Britain of Margaret Thatcher. Ordinary Britons easily got confused about the so-called 'Contras' and what was happening at the time in Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras and, even, Grenada. El Salvador's Oriente region is the place to head for a basic understanding of the conflict that made El Salvador infamous. Up at Perquín – where the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces (FMLN) leftist guerrillas had their headquarters – are memorials to the fallen. Shrines and burial sites are dotted here and there, and commemorative parades are as routine as religious ones. The Museo de la Revolución contains a collection of war memorabilia, rocket launchers, downed helicopter fragments, a preserved radio station, propaganda posters and photographs of guerrillas. Nearly 1,000 people were slain in a massacre that took place in December 1981 in El Mozote. Visiting such places might sound like the very definition of 'dark tourism', but the people I encountered were welcoming and kind; they want the world to know what happened here. The journey up to the sierras around Perquín – known today as the capital of the Peace Route – was also quite magical. A bright future UK tour firm bosses are very upbeat about its future prospects. 'I recently returned from a trip full of highlights,' says David Horwell, founder of Select Latin America. 'Sunset dinners by Lake Coatepeque, volcano hikes, artisan workshops, watching surfers at El Tunco, and drinking in atmospheric bars in San Salvador's historic centre. 'It's a perfect blend of thrilling adventures, laid-back moments, rich history, and immersive local experiences, all within a small, accessible country. Over the past year, we've witnessed a rise in interest for El Salvador as a travel destination, and it's no surprise. The country's improving safety record and steadily expanding tourism infrastructure are drawing a wide variety of travellers.' He highlights coffee tourism and the pre-Columbian ruins of Tazumal and Joya de Cerén as attractions with major potential for UK travellers. Steve Wilson, founder of sabbatical specialist LiNGER, adds: 'Having spent time back in El Salvador for the first time in 25 years, I can safely say it is one of the most inspiring, unique and safe countries to travel at the moment.' John Faithfull, a Central America specialist at Steppes Travel, concurs: 'As the security situation improves on the ground, the appetite for travel to El Salvador grows. Typically, our clients are aged 50-plus, well-travelled and driven by an interest in El Salvador's people and culture, as well as a curiosity about the civil war and its legacy. The warmth of the people and the stories they share are what our clients find most captivating about El Salvador.' The fabled Pan-American Highway has always gone arrow-straight through El Salvador, but for years many travellers halted at the border and wondered if it was worth the risk. Bukele's heavy-handed approach to crime will continue to be divisive, but it has opened up the country to mainstream tourism. This in turn is drawing investment. Intriguingly, in sheer visitor numbers, El Salvador is already ahead of Costa Rica – which had 2.9 million visitors in 2024, a drop of 7 per cent on 2019. Perhaps, post-pandemic, we're all a bit braver, or at least more curious. I am already scanning the crime stats for this year's 'murder capital' to plan my next holiday.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Cemetery of the living dead': Venezuelans recall 125 days in notorious El Salvador prison
Arturo Suárez struggles to pinpoint the worst moment of his incarceration inside a prison the warden boasted was 'a cemetery of the living dead'. Was it the day inmates became so exasperated at being beaten by guards that they threatened to hang themselves with their sheets? 'The only weapon we had was our own lives,' recalled the Venezuelan former detainee. Was it when prisoners staged a 'blood strike', cutting their arms with broken pipes and smearing their bedclothes with crimson messages of despair? 'SOS!' they wrote. Or was rock bottom for Suárez when he turned 34 while stranded in a Central American penitentiary prison officers had claimed he would only leave in a body bag? Suárez, a reggaeton musician known by the stage name SuarezVzla, was one of 252 Venezuelans who found themselves trapped inside El Salvador's notorious 'Cecot' terrorism confinement centre after becoming embroiled in Donald Trump's anti-immigrant crusade. After 125 days behind bars, Suárez and the other detainees were freed on 18 July after a prisoner swap deal between Washington and Caracas. Since flying home to Venezuela, they have started to open up about their torment, offering a rare and disturbing glimpse of the human toll of President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian crackdown in El Salvador and Trump's campaign against immigration. Suárez said conditions inside the maximum security prison were so dire he and other inmates considered killing themselves. 'My daughter's really little and she needs me. But we'd made up our minds. We decided to put an end to this nightmare,' he said, although the prisoners stepped back from the brink. Another detainee, Neiyerver Rengel, 27, described his panic after guards claimed he would probably spend 90 years there. 'I felt shattered, destroyed,' said the Venezuelan barber, who was deported to Cecot after being captured in Irving, Texas. Trump officials called the Venezuelans – many of whom had no criminal background – 'heinous monsters' and 'terrorists' but largely failed to produce proof, with many seemingly targeted simply for being Venezuelan and having tattoos. Norman Eisen, the executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is helping Rengel sue the US government for $1.3m, called the 'abduction' of scores of Venezuelans a stain on his country's reputation. 'It is shocking and shameful and every patriotic American should be disgusted by it,' said Eisen, who expected other freed prisoners to take legal action. Suárez's journey to one of the world's harshest prisons began in Chile's capital, Santiago, where the singer had moved after fleeing Venezuela's economic collapse in 2016. One day early last year, before deciding to migrate to the US, Suárez watched a viral YouTube video about the 'mega-prison' by the Mexican influencer Luisito Comunica. Bukele officials had invited Comunica to film inside Cecot as part of propaganda efforts to promote an anti-gang offensive that has seen 2% of the country's adult population jailed since 2022. Suárez, then a fan of El Salvador's social media-savvy president, was gripped. 'Wouldn't it be great if we could afford a package tour to go and visit Cecot?' he recalled joking to his wife. Little did the couple know that Suárez would soon be languishing in Cecot's cage-like cells, sleeping on a metal bunk bed. After entering the US in September 2024, Suárez worked odd jobs in North Carolina. In February, three weeks after Trump's inauguration, he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and, in mid-March, put on a deportation flight, the destination of which was not revealed. When the plane landed, its passengers – who were instructed to keep its blinds closed – had no idea where they were. The penny dropped when one detainee disobeyed the order and spotted El Salvador's flag outside. 'That's when we understood … where we were heading – to Cecot,' he said. Suárez described the hours that followed as a blur of verbal abuse and beatings, as disoriented prisoners were frogmarched on to buses that took them to Cecot's cell block eight. Suárez said the men were forced to shave their heads and told by the warden: 'Welcome to hell! Welcome to the cemetery of the living dead! You'll leave here dead!' As he was dragged off the bus, Suárez, who is shortsighted, said he asked a guard for help because his spectacles were falling off: 'He told me to shut up, punched me [in the face] and broke my glasses.' 'What am I doing in Cecot?' Suárez recalled thinking. 'I'm not a terrorist. I've never killed anyone. I make music.' Rengel had almost identical memories of his arrival: 'The police officers started saying we were going to die in El Salvador – that it was likely we'd spend 90 years there.' Noah Bullock, the head of the El Salvador-focused human rights group Cristosal, said activists had heard very similar accounts from prisoners in other Salvadoran jails, suggesting such terror tactics were not merely the behaviour of 'bad apple prison guards'. 'There's clearly a culture coming from the leadership of the prison system to inculcate the guards into operating this way, [into] using dehumanising and physical abuse in a systematic way.' Suárez said the Venezuelans spent the next 16 weeks being woken at 4am, moved between cells holding between 10 and 19 people, and enduring a relentless campaign of physical and psychological abuse. 'There's no life in there,' he said. 'The only good thing they did for us was give us a Bible. We sought solace in God and that's why nobody took their own life.' The musician tried to lift spirits by composing upbeat songs, such as Cell 31, which describes a message from God. 'Be patient, my son. Your blessing will soon arrive,' its lyrics say. The song became a prison anthem and Suárez said inmates sang it, one day in March, when the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, visited Cecot to pose by its packed cells. 'We aren't terrorists! We aren't criminals! Help!' the Venezuelans bellowed. But their pleas were ignored and the mood grew increasingly desperate, as the inmates were deprived of contact with relatives, lawyers and even the sun. 'There came a point where we had no motivation, no strength left,' Rengel said. Only in mid-June was there a glimmer of hope when prisoners were given shampoo, razors and soap and measured for clothes. 'They obviously wanted to hide what had happened from the world,' said Suárez, who sensed release might be close. One month later the men were free. Suárez said he was determined to speak out now he was safely back in his home town of Caracas. 'The truth must be … heard all over the world. Otherwise what they did to us will be ignored,' said the musician, who admitted he had once been an admirer of Bukele's populist campaigns against political corruption and gangs. 'Now I realise it's just a complete farce because how can you negotiate with human lives? How can you use human beings as bargaining chips?' Suárez said. A spokesperson for El Salvador's government did not respond to questions about the prisoners' allegations. Last week, the homeland security department's assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, dismissed prisoners' claims of abuses as 'false sob stories'. Suárez hoped never to set foot in El Salvador or the US again but said he forgave his captors. 'And I hope they can forgive themselves,' he added. 'And realise that while they might escape the justice of man they will never be able to escape divine justice.' In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
CNN
a day ago
- Politics
- CNN
Trump Administration files a second complaint against a federal judge
The Department of Justice has filed a misconduct complaint against US District Court Judge James Boasberg – marking another formal challenge against a federal judge who has pushed back on the Trump administration's policies. The complaint, submitted Monday and obtained by CNN, alleges that Boasberg, the DC judge at the center of cases involving the administration's use of a colonial-era law to send undocumented immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, made comments about President Donald Trump at a Judicial Conference meeting in March that 'undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.' 'While there, Judge Boasberg attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice (John) Roberts and roughly two dozen other federal judges by straying from the traditional topics to express his belief that the Trump Administration would 'disregard rulings of federal courts' and trigger 'a constitutional crisis,'' Attorney General Pamela Bondi's chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said in the complaint. 'Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis,' Mizelle argued, insisting that the Trump administration has complied with court orders. The complaint alleges that days after making the statements, Boasberg 'began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump Administration would not follow court orders,' pointing to the judge's order restricting the administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. The Federalist reported on Boasberg's remarks at the conference earlier this month, citing a memorandum it obtained. In response to the concerns raised by Boasberg at the conference, 'Chief Justice Roberts expressed hope that would not happen and in turn no constitutional crisis would materialize,' according to the memorandum. Bondi said on social media Monday night the complaint came at her direction, arguing that Boasberg's 'comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that.' CNN has reached out to Boasberg for comment. The move is yet another escalation in the Trump administration's conflicts with the judiciary and comes after the Department of Justice filed another misconduct complaint against a DC district court judge earlier this year. In February, the department accused Judge Ana Reyes of misconduct during hearings over Trump's executive order that called for banning transgender troops from serving in the US military, the Associated Press reported. The complaint against Boasberg asks the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sri Srinivasan, to refer the complaint to a special investigative committee, reassign Boasberg's relevant cases to another judge, and 'impose appropriate disciplinary action, including a public reprimand and referral to the Judicial Conference for consideration of impeachment-related recommendations, if the committee finds willful misconduct.' It's extremely unusual for the Justice Department to complain formally about a judge's behavior rather than pursue its agenda through the court system directly. It is also unusual for a public debate to erupt around conversations between judges, which rarely come to light, at their private annual events. Trump's rhetoric opposing the judiciary has been far more aggressive than during his first term. In March, Trump labeled Boasberg a 'Radical Left Lunatic Judge' and called for his impeachment on social media. The action drew a rare rebuke from Roberts, who made a highly unusual statement shortly after Trump's posts. Federal judges hold lifetime appointments, and their impeachment and removal is extremely rare. The House of Representatives has impeached only 15 federal judges since 1803, and eight of those impeachments were followed by convictions in the Senate, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. Boasberg had a relatively nonpartisan record before facing Trump's fury, CNN has previously reported. He was appointed to the DC district court by former President Barack Obama and was previously named to DC's local courts by former President George W. Bush. Boasberg was known for giving lenient punishments to January 6 rioters. In Trump's first term, he released FISA court materials that exposed huge problems with the FBI's probe into connections between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia's election meddling. He also paved the way for conservative groups to obtain some of Hillary Clinton's emails from her private server. CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz, Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, John Fritze, Marshall Cohen and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Justice Department files misconduct complaint against federal judge handling deportation case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday filed a misconduct complaint against the federal judge who has clashed with President Donald Trump 's administration over deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Escalating the administration's conflict with U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that she directed the filing of the complaint against Boasberg 'for making improper public comments about Donald Trump and his administration.' The complaint stems from remarks Boasberg allegedly made in March to Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges saying the administration would trigger a constitutional crisis by disregarding federal court rulings, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Associated Press. The comments 'have undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,' the complaint says, adding that the administration has 'always complied with all court orders.' Boasberg is among several judges who have questioned whether the administration has complied with their orders. The meeting took place days before Boasberg issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from an 18th century law. The judge's verbal order to turn around planes that were on the way to El Salvador was ignored. Boasberg has since found probable cause that the administration committed contempt of court. The comments were supposedly made during a meeting of the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's governing body. The remarks were first reported by the conservative website The Federalist, which said it obtained a memo summarizing the meeting. Boasberg, the chief judge in the district court in the nation's capital, is a member of the Judicial Conference. Its meetings are not public. The complaint calls for an investigation, the reassignment of the deportations case to another judge while the inquiry is ongoing and sanctions, including the possible recommendation of impeachment, if the investigation substantiates the allegations. Trump himself already has called for Boasberg's impeachment, which in turn prompted a rare response from Roberts rejecting the call. The complaint was filed with Judge Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. More than 250 Venezuelans who were deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, were sent home to Venezuela earlier this month in a deal that also free 10 U.S. citizens and permanent residents who had been held by Venezuela. But the lawsuit over the deportations and the administration's response to Boasberg's order remains in his court.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Justice Department files misconduct complaint against federal judge handling deportation case
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday filed a misconduct complaint against the federal judge who has clashed with President Donald Trump 's administration over deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador . Escalating the administration's conflict with U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg , Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that she directed the filing of the complaint against Boasberg 'for making improper public comments about President Trump and his administration.'
