via WSJ:
“The group was made up of “violent criminals” who were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s MS-13 gangs, Rubio wrote on X, describing them as “murderers and rapists.” The Pentagon described the operation as a “successful counterterrorism mission.”
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele touted the “joint military operation” between the two countries in a video set to cinematic music, showing the deportees being forcefully taken off the plane and transported to the maximum-security prison, where their heads were shaved and they were locked up in cells.
This is the second time the government has sent Venezuelans who it claims are members of the violent street gang to the sprawling prison built by Bukele as part of his crackdown on the country’s gangs. Built to house 40,000 inmates, it’s considered the largest prison in the world, and approximately 15,000 accused Salvadoran gang members were being held there before the U.S. deportees arrived.”