'Making A Huge Mistake': Chris Van Hollen Slams El Salvador's Government For Not Releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia

During a press briefing after his meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) slammed El Salvador's government.

Transcript

00:00I will say, I want to say something about the government of El Salvador.

00:03They are making a huge mistake.

00:05You know, they want to brand themselves as a country for technology.

00:10You know, the president said, you know, Bitcoin is legal tender.

00:14But now what they're branding themselves as, as the place for these huge prisons,

00:21where people who are illegally deducted, excuse me, illegally abducted,

00:28are warehoused.

00:30That is not a good look.

00:32There are also other things Americans can do with respect to economic pressure on El Salvador.

00:38People can stop traveling.

00:40Actually, tourism has been going up.

00:42They can stop traveling.

00:44There may be states that decide, you know, they don't want any of their pension funds

00:49invested in companies that invest in a place like El Salvador.

00:55So there are many things that can be done.

00:58And I just urge the president of El Salvador, the vice president of El Salvador to rethink

01:03whether they want to become a place that just gets paid off for being complicit in this

01:10illegal scheme.

01:11Senator, have you talked to your colleagues, Senator, have you talked to your colleagues

01:16who plan to go down and what do you hope, what do you hope from your, have you, right here.

01:21Senator, why did the Salvadoran government reverse itself on allowing you to meet with Mr.

01:27Obrego Garcia after telling you no?

01:29And also, do you have a sense of why the government transferred Mr. Obrego Garcia from CICOT to this

01:36other prison in Santa Ana?

01:38Well, I think the reason they relented is pretty clear.

01:44They were feeling the pressure.

01:45I mean, they were feeling the pressure because while I was in El Salvador, we had two major press conferences

01:54that included the local press who reported on this.

01:59And I think that they decided that it was not a good look to continue to detain Al Brego Garcia

02:08without anybody having access to him.

02:12There's no other explanation for the fact that they said no, no, no, no, no, and then prevented us from going to the prison.

02:19So that's why.

02:22I'm sorry, what was the second question?

02:23The second part, why, and welcome home, why did they transfer him from CICOT to the other prison in Santa Ana?

02:32Oh, well, I mean, number one, I will say my main request was to meet with him.

02:37And as I said, he's no longer in CICOT.

02:39So he's at a different prison, which is pretty far outside of San Salvador.

02:46But in addition to that, I didn't even know that.

02:49I mean, so we all thought he was at CICOT.

02:52I mean, until I met with him.

02:54That's why I tried to go to CICOT.

02:57So I think that's why he wasn't brought up to CICOT.