US Secretary of State Marco Rubio could not have been more complimentary about the deal he struck with the president of El Salvador on Monday.

Bukele had offered to take in people deported from the US, regardless of their nationality, and house them in El Salvador’s mega-jail.

“We can send them and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said.

The mega-jail, also known as Cecot (short for Terrorism Confinement Centre), has become emblematic of Bukele’s iron-fist approach to crime and punishment.

The maximum-security prison, one of the largest in Latin America, opened in January 2023 and can house 40,000 inmates, according to government figures.