El Salvador’s President Najib Abukela has announced his country’s willingness to house ‘criminals’ convicted in the United States in the ‘mega-prison’ in the city of Tecoloca, as part of an agreement between the two countries, in exchange for a financial fee.

He made the announcement in a post on the ‘X’ platform following his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday.

Abu Keila said his country was ready to ‘accept only convicted criminals (including US citizens) in our huge prison (Sekot) in exchange for a fee’.

The fee would be relatively small for the US, but important for us to cover the cost of the prison,’ he said.

With a capacity of 40,000 inmates, Sekot is the largest prison in the Americas and is notorious for its harsh conditions.

Earlier, the US State Department announced that El Salvador had offered to accept the detention of ‘irregular migrants involved in crimes, regardless of nationality’.