Donald Trump has picked Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general – a role that would oversee the Federal Bureau of Prisons if his appointment gets approved by the Senate. Gaetz has visited El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), where gang leaders and murderers are locked up — and from which they are never released.
“There’s a lot more discipline in this prison than we see in a lot of the prisons in the United States,” said Gaetz, who was then a congressman during the visit.
And he’s a fan of the hardline rule of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who is often berated by human rights groups for flouting norms but largely credited inside his country for returning safety to the streets.
“This is the solution” for El Salvador, Gaetz added, in a video released by Bukele.
“We think the good ideas in El Salvador actually have legs and can go to other places and help other people be safe and secure and hopeful and prosperous.”
Bukele is well aware of the emotions he stirs — both positive and negative — and has dubbed himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”
Trump has at times both praised and denounced Bukele — when he was in the White House he lauded cooperation with El Salvador’s then-new leader, but he turned critic once he was out of power and focused on immigration, saying Bukele was sending criminals to the US
But Gaetz told Time Magazine he considered Bukele a “kindred spirit,” and the pair greeted each other warmly as Gaetz led other congressmen into Bukele’s office during the July visit.
CNN visited Cecot last month. Here’s what we found.