El Salvador bars U.S. senator from visiting wrongly deported man in prison – National [Video]

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday he was denied access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and being held in a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, during a meeting with the country’s vice president.

The Maryland senator vowed to visit the country by midweek if the U.S. government failed to obey a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland resident and father of three who was deported last month.

Van Hollen, who is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a news conference in San Salvador after the meeting that Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa told him he could not authorize a visit or a call with Abrego Garcia.

He said Ulloa had also told him El Salvador was not releasing Abrego Garcia because the U.S. government was paying to keep him incarcerated, and would not provide evidence of criminal wrongdoing or that Abrego Garcia …