A TRUMP FAVORITE: EL SALVADOR
El Salvador is a Central American nation of 6.3 million which mainly produces agricultural products for internal use and exports coffee, sugar and clothing. But exports are only $6.5 billion and imports $15.6 billion, the difference being made up by services (i.e. call centers for US corporations) and more importantly remittances from emigrants. The currency is the US dollar and bitcoin.
Why should such a small nation be a US favorite? The reason: its prison system, huge and harsh. The autocratic president Nayib Bukele governs under a “state of emergency” due to gang activity, and his country has “the highest incarceration rate in the world, in some of its grimmest prisons.” The Trump administration has been paying El Salvador to incarcerate unwanted immigrants, especially Venezuelans. One high-profile deportee to El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is a legal resident of the US against whom there are no criminal charges. Trump is trying to find a legal justification for sending US citizen-convicts to El Salvador for incarceration.
Sources: The Economist 4/19/2 and Calendario Atlante De Agostini 2025 edition