El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on Tuesday issued a pointed response to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she criticized conditions at the country’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
Bukele was reacting to a post Clinton shared on the social media platform X that promoted a “Frontline” documentary titled Surviving CECOT. In her post, Clinton said the program features three prisoners who claim they were labeled as gang members without evidence by the Trump administration and deported to what she described as a brutal Salvadoran prison.
In his reply, Bukele said that if Clinton believed torture was occurring at CECOT, El Salvador was prepared to cooperate fully. He added that the government would be willing to release its entire prison population, including gang leaders and those described as political prisoners, to any country willing to accept them, provided all inmates were included.
Bukele said such a move would make it easier for journalists and nongovernmental organizations to gather testimonies critical of his government. He added that if claims about systemic abuse were accurate, releasing all prisoners should produce many more accounts supporting those allegations.
He concluded by saying his government would continue prioritizing what he described as the human rights of Salvadorans living without gang control.
The exchange followed controversy surrounding a “60 Minutes” segment on CECOT that was pulled by CBS News. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the segment was removed for political reasons, while CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said it was not ready to air due to editorial considerations.
The segment briefly appeared on Global TV’s website and app in Canada before being removed, though it circulated online. The report included interviews with men imprisoned at CECOT who alleged physical and sexual abuse during their detention.
The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it was working with Bukele’s government to deport detained migrants to CECOT. On Monday, a federal judge ordered the administration to allow more than 100 Venezuelan men to return to the United States to challenge their deportations after they were sent to the prison under the Alien Enemies Act.
