El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has agreed to take in criminals of any nationality, including violent criminals, from the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

President Donald Trump penultimate Monday proposed shipping U.S. citizens who are repeat offenders and criminals to African countries to serve out their sentences as a means to drive down the crime rate while saving the country hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Mr Trump’s proposal —to use African and other Third World countries to hold criminals and deportees— draws parallels from the UK, which sought to grant illegal immigrants asylum to live in Rwanda. The UK shelved the policy after Keir Starmer of the Labour Party became prime minister in July 2024.

“Bukele has agreed to accept for deportation any illegal alien in the U.S. who is a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, and house them in his jails,’’ Mr Rubio said following a meeting with the Salvadoran leader on Tuesday.

Mr Rubio added that Mr Bukele also “offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents.

“No country’s ever made an offer of friendship such as this,’’ Mr Rubio said.

Mr Bukele said in a post on social media platform X that he offered the U.S. the chance to outsource part of its prison system.

“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee will be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable,’’ Mr Bukele said.

In June, Mr Bukele won a second term as president.

His successful but controversial crackdown on criminal gangs that had terrorised the Central American country for decades is seen as key to his electoral success; as crime fell, Mr Bukele’s popularity soared.

Activists denounce arbitrary arrests and other human rights violations.

The country of some six million people had the highest murder rate in the world a few years ago, but since the crackdown, the number has dropped significantly.

The issue of migration played a central role in Mr Rubio’s trip to Central America.

He visited Panama over the weekend. After his visit to El Salvador, Mr Rubio would travel to Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. 

(dpa/NAN)