Death Squads, Deportations, and the Rule of Law: Tracing the Roots of Today’s Crisis
When Salvadoran President Bukele and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House in April, they shared a viral moment of mutual admiration, with Bukele vowing to imprison U.S. deportees indefinitely—despite U.S. court orders to ensure their return—and Trump urging Bukele, under whom El Salvador has surpassed the U.S. as having the highest incarceration rate in the world, to “build more prisons” to make room for U.S. citizens Trump intends to send there.
This conflict between respect for the rule of law and supposed interests of national security in the U.S. relationship with El Salvador goes back many decades. The 1980 murder of four American churchwomen in El Salvador was a defining event in that bilateral relationship, and the search for justice and accountability is a case study—and a cautionary tale—about the long-term consequences of extreme violence, a dysfunctional legal system, and impunity of those responsible for the worst war crimes.
The discussion about the roots of today’s crisis included:
- George Black, author of Heart of Darkness in El Salvador: Reopening a Cold War Case—and Why it Still Matters, (in the May issue of The New Republic)
- Jeffrey Smith, Senior Counsel at Arnold & Porter, former General Counsel of the CIA, and former Assistant Legal Adviser, Department of State
- Isabel Carlota Roby, Senior Staff Attorney, Latin America, RFK Human Rights, lead attorney for 10 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador
- Elisa Massimino, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Human Rights Institute, Georgetown Law