El Salvador president tried to stage visiting US senator’s photo for propaganda: report

18 Apr 2025, 16:30 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen meets Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongly deported to El Salvador by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump, at a location given as El Salvador, in this image released April 17, 2025. Senator Chris Van Hollen via X/Handout via REUTERS

Ailia Zehra
April 18, 2025Trump

When Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) received applause Thursday after he succeeded in meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele was quick to share photos from Van Hollen's meeting with Garcia.

"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the 'death camps' & 'torture', now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador," Bukele wrote.

But a New York Times report published Friday said an aide to the El Salvador president placed two glasses with cherries and salted rims on the table in front of Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia during their meeting to stage the photo and use it to reject reports regarding mistreatment of prisoners in Salvadoran jails.

The photos showed Abrego Garcia and the Maryland Democrat sitting at a table in a dining space surrounded by vibrant greenery, as well as greeting one another on the gleaming floor of the hotel lobby.

Earlier, Van Hollen was prevented from visiting Abrego Garcia by Salvadoran military officials, who he claimed were trying to obstruct his trip to the prison. "This is about bringing home a man they ADMIT should've never been abducted. I won't rest until then," he said.

Prisons in El Salvador are said to be overcrowded where instances of torture are well-documented. "This mass incarceration has aggravated historically poor conditions in detention, including extreme overcrowding, violence, and poor access to goods and services essential to rights, such as food, drinking water, and health care," said a Human Rights Watch report released in 2022.

Meanwhile, American political commentators reacted to the Salvadoran president's X post, saying he "caved" to pressure. Earlier this week, Bukele had vowed not to return the deported man to the United States during his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump. Many said that Van Hollen's success in meeting with Abrego Garcia indicates that the backlash against the Maryland man's wrongful deportation was effective.