Death Squads, Deportations, and the Rule of Law: Tracing the Roots of Today’s Crisis
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. EDT
Location:
500 1st St NW Room 750 Map
When Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House last month, they shared a viral moment of mutual admiration, with Bukele vowing to imprison U.S. deportees indefinitely—despite U.S. court orders to ensure their return—and Trump urging Bukele, under whom El Salvador has surpassed the United States as having the highest incarceration rate in the world, to “build more prisons” to make room for U.S. citizens Trump intends to send there.
This conflict between respect for the rule of law and supposed interests of national security in the U.S. relationship with El Salvador goes back many decades. The 1980 murder of four American churchwomen in El Salvador was a defining event in that bilateral relationship, and the search for justice and accountability is a case study—and a cautionary tale—about the long-term consequences of extreme violence, a dysfunctional legal system, and impunity of those responsible for the worst war crimes. Join us for a discussion about the roots of today’s crisis with George Black, Jeffrey Smith, Isabel Carlota Roby, and Elisa Massimino. Refreshments will be provided.
This event is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
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Stone statue of an angel with a book titled "Ley" against a cloudy sky
