How questions of sovereignty and security are fueling instability in the Sahel

Special How questions of sovereignty and security are fueling instability in the Sahel
Chadian soldiers celebrate as they parade in D'Jamena on May 9, 2021. (AFP/File)
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Updated 31 December 2024
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How questions of sovereignty and security are fueling instability in the Sahel

How questions of sovereignty and security are fueling instability in the Sahel
  • Chad ended military cooperation with France in November, marking another major shift in the regional power balance
  • Withdrawal of Western forces could lead to greater sovereignty, but might also leave states vulnerable to insurgencies

LONDON: As a piece of geopolitical theater, the timing was hard to beat. Chad’s foreign minister announced the end of military cooperation with France just hours after his French counterpart left the country.

That it took place on Nov. 28, as Chad celebrated its Republic Day—a key date in its move away from French colonial rule—only added to the symbolism.

On the same day, Senegal also suggested French troops should leave.

It was a seminal moment in post-colonial relations between France and the Sahel—the belt of nations south of the Sahara that stretches across Africa.

The departure of French troops from Chad and Senegal means France will no longer have a military presence in a region where it has long held sway.




While Chad’s decision to evict French troops was not driven by a military coup, it came amid increasing hostility toward the French across the region. (AFP/File)

The political dynamics of the Sahel have been rapidly shifting in recent years, and 2024 was no exception.

Chad’s decision to end its defense pact with France was one of the most significant events in a year that saw a continuation of the shift away from Western influence.

In the past three years, France has withdrawn troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, as a wave of coups brought military regimes hostile to French influence into power.

These governments have looked elsewhere—to Russia, China, and Turkiye—for defense cooperation, dealing a major blow to Western hopes of maintaining a security presence in a region that has become a melting pot for extremist groups.

The year began with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announcing they would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)—a regional bloc established to help maintain financial and political security.




French soldiers from the Barkhane force stand at the Barkhane tactical command center in N'Djamena. (AFP/File)

There is widespread concern that the shrinking of this influential bloc of nations will lead to further instability.

Indeed, the backdrop for the past year of turmoil has been an ever-deteriorating security situation across the Sahel, with a growing number of civilians maimed and killed amid extremist insurgencies.

Chad’s decision to end its defense cooperation with France came in stark contrast to the ambitious Sahel security policy it enacted more than 10 years earlier.

In 2012, northern Mali was overrun by militants allied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As they expanded south toward the capital, Mali appealed to its former colonizer for help. In early 2013, France deployed 1,700 troops as part of Operation Serval.

The initial mission appeared to work as the militants fled northern towns. But the insurgency soon spread to neighboring countries.




Boko Haram members. (X)

In response, France expanded the operation in 2014 to include five states—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. It deployed more than 5,000 soldiers and rebranded it Operation Barkhane.

Meanwhile, the insurgency grew, with militant factions aligning into two main groups: the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin and the Sahel branch of Daesh.

The failure to suppress the militants in Mali in the long term was one of the reasons for the 2020 coup that led to a deterioration in relations with France. In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron withdrew French troops from Mali as Russian mercenaries increased their presence.

A similar pattern followed in Burkina Faso and Niger, where populations turned against the French presence, military coups ensued, and France had to withdraw its troops.

FASTFACTS

• Chad ended military cooperation with France in November 2024, marking a major shift in the Sahel’s geopolitical landscape.

• Post-colonial resentment and France’s neo-colonial policies fueled public opposition, forcing troop withdrawals from Sahel nations.

• With Western powers withdrawing, Russia expanded its role in the Sahel, providing military advisers and forming alliances.


While Chad’s decision to evict French troops was not driven by a military coup, it came amid increasing hostility toward the French across the region.

“After 66 years since the independence of the Republic of Chad, it is time for Chad to assert its full sovereignty and redefine its strategic partnerships according to national priorities,” Abderaman Koulamallah, Chad’s foreign minister, said.

“This decision, taken after in-depth analysis, marks a historic turning point.”

Many analysts feel this was a turning point of France’s own making, stemming from its neo-colonial policies that limited the sovereignty of Sahel nations.

“Since independence, France has intervened in Chad and other former colonies, providing regime survival packages and interfering in domestic politics,” Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Arab News.




Protesters wave Chadian flags during an anti-France demonstration in N'djamena. (AFP/File)


There has been increasing hostility toward the region’s monetary system, which many view as a relic from the colonial era that allows France to maintain excessive control over their economies.

The African Financial Community (CFA) franc monetary zone applies across 14 countries in West and Central Africa and is pegged to the euro. Critics say it strips those countries of an independent national monetary policy.

This has fed growing resentment of the French presence in the region.

“The continued French interference in domestic affairs has created substantial anti-French sentiment in its former colonies,” said Laessing.

“No ruler in Africa can be seen close to France as they would face a public backlash. This was one of the reasons why Chad decided to end the military partnership with France.”

The deteriorating security situation has added to that resentment. An attack by the extremist group Boko Haram near the border with Nigeria in October killed at least 40 Chadian soldiers. Opposition parties said the French presence had failed to prevent the attack.

Reports preceding the French foreign minister’s visit in November suggested France was already planning a major troop reduction in African countries, including cutting numbers in Chad from 1,000 to 300.

However, the full withdrawal from Chad means that the last operational French base in Africa will be in Djibouti on the Red Sea coast, which Macron visited on Dec. 20.

For Chad, losing French military support is a significant concern for the multinational force battling Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin—an area that includes parts of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria.




General Thierry Burkhard, French Army Chief of the Defence Staff, talks on April 15, 2022 to a group of soldiers from Cameroon, Chad. (AFP/File)

“The withdrawal is good news for Boko Haram,” said Laessing. “I don’t think that the US and Britain will be able to contribute to the Lake Chad force without French logistical support.”

In 2019, French jets stopped a rebel column approaching the capital to topple then-President Idriss Deby. He was killed in 2021 in further clashes with militants and replaced by his son, Mahamat Deby Itno.

“Chad’s decision to expel French troops is a dangerous move for President Mahamat Deby because the main function of the French jets based in the Chadian capital is to protect the government against rebel attacks, which are frequent in this fragile country,” said Laessing.

The two Mirage 2000-D fighter jets left Chad for France on Dec. 10.

It was not just France that saw its position in the Sahel eroded in 2024. In March, Niger announced it would end military cooperation with the US.

By mid-September, the withdrawal of 1,100 American troops was complete, ending an extensive counter-terrorism operation run out of two air bases.

As the Americans left, the Russians moved in, with military advisers arriving from Moscow in May.




Chadian and French flags are seen at the Base Aerienne Projetee, also called air base 172 Chief Sergeant Adji Kossei, in N'Djamena. (AFP/File)

In 2024, the growing alliance of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger represented a seismic shift in the region’s balance of power.

As violence surged, a record 7,620 people were killed in the Sahel in the first six months of 2024—a 9 percent increase from 2023 and a staggering 190 percent rise from 2021.

Many fear the geopolitical changes in the region will make Sahel nations even more unstable.

With little hope of political or military solutions, the conflicts are likely to persist, leaving vulnerable populations in greater peril in the year ahead.

 


Two women shot on campus of small technical college near Los Angeles

Two women shot on campus of small technical college near Los Angeles
Updated 5 sec ago
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Two women shot on campus of small technical college near Los Angeles

Two women shot on campus of small technical college near Los Angeles
  • The Los Angeles Police Department said officers detained a male subject from a car matching the description of a vehicle linked to the shooting
  • The school went on lockdown for at least an hour after the shooting
INGLEWOOD: Two female employees of a Southern California technical college were shot on campus Friday and taken to the hospital in an incident that authorities attributed to workplace violence.
The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. in an office at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology campus in Inglewood, where Mayor James Butts said the suspect was believed to be a former employee.
Aerial TV video showed a heavy police presence outside the campus in the city, which abuts Los Angeles to the southwest.
One of the victims was in critical condition, Butts said. The Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed on the social platform X that two people were taken to the hospital.
A person was taken into custody after initially leaving the scene, Butts said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said officers detained a male subject from a car matching the description of a vehicle linked to the shooting, which had been sent to local law enforcement agencies by the Inglewood Police Department. The Inglewood police did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
The school went on lockdown for at least an hour after the shooting.
Chris Becker, president and chief administrator of the campus, told KABC-TV that the campus is patrolled regularly and, as an aviation school, safety is one of its primary focuses.
“It’s a peaceful campus,” Becker said. “It’s a nice community of students and teachers and staff.”
The Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology has campuses across the country. The college’s Inglewood location, about a mile (about 1.5 kilometers) from the Los Angeles International Airport, accommodates 500 students and offers training programs focused on aviation maintenance technology, according to its website.

Gunman kills three in Thailand’s conflict-hit south

Gunman kills three in Thailand’s conflict-hit south
Updated 12 min 21 sec ago
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Gunman kills three in Thailand’s conflict-hit south

Gunman kills three in Thailand’s conflict-hit south
  • Violence frequently rocks the kingdom’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala
  • In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven

BANGKOK: A gunman has shot dead three people including a child in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, police said Saturday, as authorities pursued the suspect.
The attacker opened fire late Friday in a residential area of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand’s far south gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man, police said.
“One victim died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,” local police officer Watthana Thurarat told AFP, adding that two more people were wounded.
Police believe the suspect, who remains at large, is linked to a rebel group, Watthana said.
Violence frequently rocks the kingdom’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where separatists seeking greater autonomy for the religiously distinct region have killed more than 7,000 people since 2004.
However, attacks on unarmed civilians in residential areas remain relatively rare, with most targeting security personnel.
In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven.
Subsequently, 78 others suffocated in the back of military trucks after they were arrested — a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest in the Buddhist-majority country.
Last year, a Thai court dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case, brought by victims’ families against seven officials, when the statute of limitations expired.
Analysts have warned the decision could further inflame tensions in the region.


Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede

Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede
Updated 28 min 8 sec ago
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Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede

Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede
  • Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India

NEW DELHI: At least six people were killed and 55 were injured in a stampede at an Indian temple in the western coastal state of Goa where hundreds of devout Hindus had assembled, police official said on Saturday.
The stampede occurred on Friday night during the annual Shri Lairai Zatra festival in Shirgao village, which is popular for its events including fire-walking.
“Devotees were witnessing a religious ceremony and the frenzy caused during the rituals triggered a stampede,” said V.S. Chadonkar, a police officer in Goa’s state capital Panjim.
“Six people lost their lives and at least eight were critically injured,” he said.
Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces often ignoring safety protocol.


VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time

VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time
Updated 03 May 2025
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VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time

VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time
  • In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of d
  • Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark

WASHINGTON: When JD Vance was running for vice president, he walked across an airport tarmac in Wisconsin one August day when his campaign travels happened to intersect those of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and approached Air Force Two. Besides wanting to take a poke at Republican Donald Trump’s rival for avoiding the press, Vance said, “I just wanted to check out my future plane.”
It’s an aircraft he now knows well.
In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of domestic trips. His international forays have featured a mix of meetings with world leaders, sharply crafted speeches advancing US policy, “soft power” appearances to build goodwill and family time at tourist sites along the way.
Diplomacy before family and cultural sights
Vance’s trips have included a five-day trip to Europe in February, a hastily reorganized trek to Greenland in March and a tour of Italy and India in April that was notable for the vice president’s brief meeting with Pope Francis the day before the pontiff died.
In his first big moment on the world stage in February, Vance pressed Trump’s “America first” message at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and spoke of maintaining US dominance in the surging industry. From there, he attended a security conference in Munich, where the vice president left his audience stunned with his lecturing remarks about democracy and scant focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In March, Vance delivered pointed remarks while in Greenland, scolding Denmark for not investing more in the security of its territory and demanding a new approach. Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark.
There’s been dealmaking, too.
In India last month, Vance announced after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they had agreed on a negotiating framework for a US-India trade deal. In Italy, he held talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in addition to his separate audiences with the pope and a top Vatican official.
Family time follows Vance’s diplomatic work
Vance has been accompanied on his overseas trips by his wife, Usha, and their 7- and 5-year-old sons and 3-year-old daughter. The kids are usually in pajamas as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.
The Vances have gazed aloft at the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and been photographed, with the children in traditional Indian dress, in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra. Without their children, the Vances also visited Dachau in Germany.
Brad Blakeman, a former senior official in George W. Bush’s administration who has provided planning advice to Vance’s office for some of his foreign travel, said that, while some personal time is woven in, these are not vacations.
“You try and balance the policy with the culture aspect of the trip so that you’re honoring the customs and culture of the places that you are visiting,” he said. Visiting iconic cultural sites while abroad shows respect and builds rapport with host nations that can enhance diplomacy.
It’s also important to be mindful that the president and vice president travel at the public’s expense, he said.
“That’s the balancing act that always has to be done because of the stewardship of the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Joel Goldstein, a law professor at Saint Louis University who specializes in the US vice presidency, said the journeys also could be intended to build Vance’s foreign policy chops.
“Part of foreign travel for a vice president is establishing a national security and diplomatic credential,” he said, noting that it’s particularly important for Vance.
At age 40, Vance served just two years in the Senate before ascending to the office.
Vance displays the habits of a millennial
Vance is also the second-youngest person and the first of the millennial generation to hold the job.
“Generations” author Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor who studies generational differences, said the ease with which Vance moves between work and leisure is emblematic of his generation.
“The research suggests that, just with Internet use and social media use, the lines between work time and family time blur, that you switch tasks much more quickly than, say, Gen Xers or boomers,” she said.
Vance frequently switches gears on the road. Last week, he wedged in a quick beer with service members in Germany — and autographed the “kegerator” built by one airman — after days of wall-to-wall official and cultural activities throughout Italy and India.
Some of the Vances’ activities have been unwelcome
Usha Vance was originally slated for a solo trip to Greenland with one of their sons to attend a dogsled race. But that plan was scrapped amid growing discontent from the governments of Greenland and Denmark over the visit and Trump’s tough talk of the US taking the territory away from a NATO ally. Instead, the vice president joined the trip, and their visit was limited to a US military base there.
On his Italy trip, Vance took heat on X for being photographed inside the Sistine Chapel. Photography there is usually forbidden, but the session turned out to have been sanctioned by the Vatican, as has happened on past visits by US dignitaries.
A decision during the same trip to close the Roman Colosseum to the public so Usha Vance and the children could take a tour drew some grumbling from tourists stranded outside. A consumer group has since filed a legal complaint.
In India, the Taj Mahal, normally swarming with tourists, was also closed to visitors to accommodate the Vances, according to local media reports.
American officials are often formally invited to make such cultural diversions, and it’s not unusual for the US Secret Service, which provides protection for top US officials, to ask for the sites to be closed to the public for security reasons during presidential and vice presidential tours.
The Vances appear to have tried on occasion to avoid such disruptions. In France, the family visited the Louvre on a Tuesday, a day when the museum is closed to the public.
Such trips have a long history
Other recent vice presidents also have taken family members along on trips. Presidents do, as well.
As vice president, Democrat Joe Biden often took one of his older granddaughters on trips, a practice he continued as president. Presidents’ children, including Malia and Sasha Obama and Chelsea Clinton, went along on some trips with their parents, too.
Practices differ, but the idea is the same: Time in office is short, so make the most of it and expose your children to the world.
Usha Vance said as much during the family visit to India, where her parents were born. She hadn’t visited in decades, and her husband and children had never been there.
In an interview with India’s NDTV, she said she’d been anxious to make the “trip of a lifetime” with them.
“It’s been something that I’ve wanted to share with my new nuclear family,” the US second lady said, adding that they knew Vance would have a chance to visit India as vice president. “We always knew that, when that opportunity arose, we would all come with him.”
“We think of it as sort of a gateway, the first of many trips to come, I hope,” she said.
Soft diplomacy is another goal
One aim of vice presidential travel abroad is often soft diplomacy, or the building of favorable attitudes toward the US through imagery and symbolism.
When Vance, with his wife of Indian descent and their children, is photographed at the Taj Mahal, it sends a message of solidarity with that nation. When he visits the Vatican and worships there, it emphasizes common ground with Catholics around the world.
Likewise, when Vance appears in public with his children, it could help drive home his quest to encourage large families and build goodwill among American voters, said University of Dayton political scientist Christopher Devine, co-author of “Do Running Mates Matter?”
“I wonder, with JD Vance, if it’s an effort to soften his image,” Devine said. “He’s someone who has not been particularly popular ever since he entered the national scene, and appearing with family tends to make people a little more likable, harder to hate.”


Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs

Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs
Updated 03 May 2025
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Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs

Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs
  • Trump once disparaged his political adversary as "Little Marco" and labeled him a con artist
  • Now Trump has named him as top national security aide in addition to his main job as top diplomat

WASHINGTON: Top diplomat, foreign aid chief, national archivist and now national security adviser.

Marco Rubio’s expanding resume underscores President Donald Trump’s increasing trust in the former Florida senator, officials said.

Trump said on Thursday that his national security adviser Mike Waltz would move on to become UN ambassador, weeks after Waltz added a journalist from The Atlantic to a Signal chat where top officials were discussing military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

In his place, Trump named Rubio as his top national security aide on an interim basis, the latest instance of the president turning to the man he once disparaged as Little Marco and labeled a con artist to take on crucial tasks in his administration.

Rubio will lead the council that coordinates the administration’s national security actions around the world, although Trump did not indicate when a permanent replacement would be named.

The reshuffle comes amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine, restore a failed ceasefire in Gaza and conduct complex nuclear talks with Iran, all while managing the diplomatic fallout from Trump’s trade war with China.

 

A senior US official said Rubio has built trust with Trump by carrying out whatever tasks Trump hands to him. “He’s done everything that Trump has asked him to do,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “Why wouldn’t you trust him?”
NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters that Rubio had implemented Trump’s America First agenda and was “well qualified” to oversee the council.
‘He gets it solved’

Early on, Rubio was sent to Panama to put Trump’s promise to “take back” the Panama Canal in more diplomatic terms. In March, after an Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump dispatched Rubio to Saudi Arabia, where he helped bring his effort toward peace between Ukraine and Russia back on track.

Rubio has also played a leading role in Trump’s controversial crackdown on migration to the United States, securing an agreement to send alleged gang members to a high-security prison in El Salvador, and revoking thousands of student visas, in many cases after the students took part in anti-Israel protests.

Above all, Rubio has vociferously argued for Trump’s agenda, even when it clashed with his own previous positions. As a US Senator, Rubio championed foreign assistance around the world. Under Trump, Rubio has overseen the dismantling of Washington’s main aid agency, and proudly defended the decision to do so.

At a Rose Garden event on Thursday, Trump thanked Rubio for his “unbelievable” work. “When I have a problem, I call up Marco,” Trump said. “He gets it solved.”

It is not unprecedented for one official to hold multiple roles at the same time. Henry Kissinger served as both Secretary of State and national security adviser in the 1970s.

But Rubio’s current workload raises questions over how he would manage multiple briefs. In addition to the role of US top diplomat, Rubio serves as the administrator of the US Agency for International Development and the acting archivist of the United States, an office that oversees the preservation of government records.

“Either one of these jobs, done correctly, requires a super-human level of dedication, focus, and energy,” said a State Department official, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. “Even with the best of intentions, I don’t see how you can do both jobs at once without neglecting responsibilities that cannot easily be delegated.”

Tammy Bruce, Rubio’s spokesperson at the State Department, said that Rubio has people around him to help him handle the two roles. “If anybody can do it... it will be Marco Rubio.”

Some major foreign policy issues remain concentrated in a tight circle, with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff leading talks with Russia, the Iran nuclear negotiations, and Israel’s war in Gaza. “The president has assembled an incredibly talented team that is fully committed to putting

America and Americans first,” the State Department said in an emailed response to a request for comment. “Secretary Rubio looks forward serving as his interim National Security Adviser while ensuring the mission critical work at the State Department continues uninterrupted.”

Trump and Rubio once traded barbs
Rubio and Trump clashed during the hard-fought campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. They exchanged barbs on the debate stage, with Trump giving Rubio the moniker Little Marco, and calling him a “con artist” for missing votes in the Senate. Rubio, who also accused Trump of being a “con man,” mocked Trump for supposedly having small hands. Rubio has said those comments were made in the context of a competitive primary, comparing himself to a boxer punching an opponent in the ring. “Doesn’t mean you hate the guy, but we were in a competition for the same job,” Rubio told CNN.
After Trump took office in 2017, tensions eased as Rubio, who is Cuban American, played a key role advising on Venezuela and Cuba policy. Rubio was a driving force behind-the-scenes in helping to craft Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, including the imposition of sanctions against the OPEC member’s vital energy sector, and in the sharp reversal of former President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba.
A senior State Department official who requested anonymity attributed Trump’s growing reliance on Rubio to a history of “
working collaboratively together, building a professional and personal relationship.”
Long a staunch advocate of traditional Republican foreign policy positions including strong support for Ukraine, allegiance to NATO, and a hawkish view of China and its human rights record, Rubio has increasingly aligned himself with Trump’s America First message.
At the State Department, Rubio has shut down an office that worked on countering Russian and Chinese misinformation, accusing it of targeting conservatives. He has worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut aid and other programs he supported as a senator, and initiated a major overhaul that would shutter offices dealing with human rights and war crimes.

Immigration purge

Rubio used State Department powers to revoke the permission of foreign students to study in the US, including a Turkish student who wrote an op-ed criticizing Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a visit to El Salvador in February, Spanish-speaker Rubio reached an agreement with President Nayib Bukele that led to hundreds of men being sent to the country on military planes, even as US courts sought to pause the deportations. Those deported included Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration admitted his deportation to his native El Salvador, despite a court order, was a mistake.
At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rubio, seated beside Trump, said the judiciary could not force the administration to try to return Abrego Garcia.
“The conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge,” Rubio told reporters.