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El Salvador authorities burn 2.7-ton pile of cocaine amid crackdown on gangs and drug trafficking
Authorities in El Salvador burned a 2.7-ton pile of cocaine worth an estimated $67.5 million. Salvadoran police released images and video this week of the huge pile of drugs being burned in the town of Ilopango, east of the capital San Salvador.
The cocaine was seized in May more than 1,000 miles off the coast of El Salvador from seven men in boats. Two Ecuadorians, two Colombians and three Mexicans were arrested. Police did not detail their exact charges.
El Salvador’s government has implemented a widespread crackdown on gangs and drug traffickers since the election of President Nayib Bukele in 2019. He was inaugurated for a second term on June 1 after being reelected with 85% of the vote. Under his leadership, the government declared a state of emergency in March 2022 that led to mass arrests of tens of thousands of suspected gang members.
Recently, El Salvador’s government transferred around 2,000 suspected gang members from prisons around the country to a new 40,000-capacity “mega prison” in Tecoluca, southeast of the capital. In a highly produced video shared by Bukele on social media, the prisoners are seen being escorted into the facility under heavily armed guard. Bukele pledged the prisoners would “pay for the crimes committed against our people.”
Gang violence was widespread in the country for decades, with official estimates placing the number of gang members in the country between 60,000 and 86,000, according to Human Rights Watch. El Salvador had a longstanding high homicide rate, which peaked at 105 per 100,000 people in 2015, before falling to a historic low in 2022.
The Bukele government’s anti-crime tactics have come under fire from human rights groups over concerns for due process and arbitrary confinement.
As of February of this year, more than 78,000 arbitrary detentions have been registered leading to prison overcrowding of approximately 148%, with at least 235 deaths in state custody, according to Amnesty International. The organization also reported 327 enforced disappearances.
Human Rights Watch warns that Bukele’s government has “systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances.” The country’s constitution prohibits immediate reelection of the president, but a court decision paved the way for Bukele’s return.
The Biden administration has also expressed concern, turning down a meeting request with Bukele in 2021 and sanctioning several of his top aides.
However, U.S. relations with Bukele appear to have shifted as a high-level delegation was sent to attend his second-term inauguration. The Associated Press reported the change could be attributed to a shift in the Biden administration’s priorities in addressing illegal immigration. El Salvador’s public security policies are credited with a 60% drop in migration from the Central American country to the U.S. since Bukele took office.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election
Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government needs to do its part to inform Americans of the vast swath of election misinformation that’s being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov. 5,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen these misinformation operations target not only his state of Arizona, but also other battleground states.
“There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said.
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In a committee hearing last month on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and The Washington Post, targeted at voters in battleground states.
“So my constituents in Arizona and others — they seek to influence the outcome of these elections, and that is absolutely beyond the pale,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We’ve got to do something about it.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News’ battleground tracker as of Sept. 30.
In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after an attempted assassination on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a last election if he does not win in November.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite.
“He’s standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote,” Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”
At the White House press briefing on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – said he’s confident of a free and fair election but alluded to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns on whether it will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the vice-presidential Republican candidate did not say he’d accept the outcome of the election, and they haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election.”
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UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell says Gaza is a “hellscape for children”
Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election
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UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell says Gaza is a “hellscape for children”
Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election