Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., He addressed El Salvador this week to find Kilmar Abrego García, the man in the center of a wrong deportation, and obtain answers about his condition.
Although he felt relieved to have the opportunity to meet Abrego García face to face on Thursday, the senator criticized the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and President Donald Trump so he said it was a configuration to defame him and the deporte.
Van Hollen said on Friday that what he called “Margarita-Gate” was manufactured by Bukele and his officials after they published a photo of their meeting with Abrego García on a table with what seemed to be filled with Margarita glasses.
In this photo, published in the X account of the Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, the American senator Chris van Hollen celebrates a meeting with the Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego García (L), an American citizen unjustly deported to his country of origin, in a hotel in San Salvador on April 17, 2025.
@nayibbukele/x via AFP through getty images
The senator said those glasses were put on the table in the middle of the meeting by the officials of El Salvador and that neither the sport touched the drinks.
“Everything happens because Bukele says it could happen. And if you look at the video you sent just after with the false margaritas, you can see that all that was a configuration,” said Van Hollen to the journalists.
The senator pushed Hoyos in the story that was being extended by the allies of Bukele and Trump and said that the entire meeting was suspicious from the beginning.
After the access to Cecot was denied, the super prison that the government said originally was holding Abrego García, Van Hollen said he was ready to fly back to the United States on Thursday, but received a message that the sport was available to meet.
The Government of El Salvador tried to have the meeting next to the pool, but the senator said he made them take it inside a dining room. During the meeting, Van Hollen and Abrego García had glasses of water and a cup of coffee on their tables, which appeared in a photo published by the senator.
The senator said that at a time during the one -hour meeting, the officials put vessels on the table that seemed to have liquid inside with sugar salts or edges at the top. Van Hollen said he had no idea what the liquid was.
Senator Chris Van Hollen meets Kilmar Abrego García in a given place such as El Salvador, in this image launched on April 17, 2025.
Senator Chris van Hollen/x through Reuters
The glass against Abrego García had less liquid than the other glass, according to Van Hollen.
“They tried to seem, I guess, he drank,” said the senator.
Van Hollen said that insinuations on Margarita’s glasses do not endure under scrutiny.
In this photo, published in the X account of the Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, the American senator Chris van Hollen celebrates a meeting with the Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego García (L), an American citizen unjustly deported to his country of origin, in a hotel in San Salvador on April 17, 2025.
@nayibbukele/x via AFP through getty images
“They made a mistake,” he said about government officials. “If you leave one of those glasses, something that was, salt or sugar, they would disappear. You would see a gap. There is no gap. No one drank anything.”
The Government of El Salvador has not commented on the senator’s claim.
President Donald Trump meets with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on April 14, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/EPA-EFE/Shuttersock
Trump was asked about the photo of the meetings with the glasses on early Friday and criticized Van Hollen as “false” and repeated statements in dispute that Abrego García is a member of MS-13.
“Everyone is false, and they have no interest in that prisoner. That prisoner’s record is incredibly bad,” Trump said before listing the crimes of which other members of MS-13 have been convicted.
None of the accusations made that Abrego García is part of MS-13 has been made in judicial documents. Abrego García’s family and lawyers have denied the accusations of gangs.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, accompanied by César Abrego García, from the left, Cecilia García and Jennifer Vásquez Sura, speaks during a press conference upon arrival of the meeting with Kilmar Abrego García in El Salvador, at the Washington Dulles International Airport, to Chantilly, on April 18, 2025.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Van Hollen emphasized that Trump is trying to divert attention from the fact that the United States government is not complying with the unanimous order of the Supreme Court that facilitates the return of Abrego García to the United States by mentioning the violence of gangs.
“I mean, this is a guy who has been in Cecot. This guy has been stopped. They want to create this appearance that life was simply charming to Kilmar, which, of course, is a big lie,” he said.
The senator added that the case goes beyond Abrego García.
“This case is not a single man. It is about protecting the constitutional rights of all those residing in the United States of America,” he said.
