Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., set out to El Salvador this week to find Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of an erroneous deportation, and get answers about his condition.
While he was relieved to get a chance to meet the Abrego Garcia face to face on Thursday, the senator slammed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and President Donald Trump for what he said was a setup to defame him and the deportee.
Van Hollen said Friday that what he called “margarita-gate” was manufactured by Bukele and his officials after they posted a photo of his meeting with Abrego Garcia at a table with what appeared to be filled margarita glasses.
The senator said those glasses were put on the table partway during the meeting by El Salvador officials and that neither he nor the deportee touched the drinks.
“Everything happens because Bukele says it could happen. And if you look at the video you sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you can see that all of that was a setup,” Van Hollen told reporters.
The senator poked holes in the story that was being spread by Bukele’s and Trump’s allies and said the entire meeting was suspect from the beginning.
After being denied access to CECOT, the super prison that the government originally said was holding Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen said he was ready to fly back to the U.S. Thursday but got a message that the deportee was available to meet.
The El Salvador government tried to have the meeting poolside, but the senator said he had them take it indoors in a dining area. During the meeting, Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia had glasses of water and a coffee cup on their tables, which appeared in a photo posted by the senator.
The senator said that at one point during the hourlong meeting, officials put glasses on the table that appeared to have liquid inside with salt or sugar rims on top. Van Hollen said he had no idea what the liquid was.
The glass in front of Abrego Garcia had less liquid than the other glass, according to Van Hollen.
“They tried to make it look like, I assume, that he drank out of it,” the senator said.
Van Hollen said the insinuations about the margarita glasses don’t hold up under scrutiny.
“They made a mistake,” he said of the government officials. “If you sip out of one of those glasses, some of whatever it was, salt or sugar, would disappear. You would see a gap. There’s no gap. No one drank anything.”
El Salvador’s government has not commented on the senator’s claim.
Trump was asked about the photo of the meetings with the glasses earlier Friday and criticized Van Hollen as “fake” and repeated disputed claims that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member.
“They’re all fake, and they have no interest in that prisoner. That prisoner’s record is unbelievably bad,” Trump said before listing crimes of which other MS-13 members have been convicted.
None of the allegations made about Abrego Garcia’s being part of MS-13 have been made in court documents. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have denied the gang allegations.
Van Hollen stressed that Trump is trying to divert attention from the fact that the U.S. government is not complying with the Supreme Court’s unanimous order that it facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. by bringing up gang violence.
“I mean, this is a guy who’s been in CECOT. This guy has been detained. They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar, which, of course, is a big fat lie,” he said.
The senator added that the case goes beyond Abrego Garcia.
“This case is not about just one man. It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everyone who resides in the United States of America,” he said.
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