FRONTLINE, El Faro Investigate What Was Behind Trump and Bukele’s Controversial CECOT Deal

The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador

Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting April 7, 2026, at 7/6c, or on PBS stations (check local listings) and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel that night at 10/9c. It will also be available on PBS Documentaries on Prime Video. 

Three months into President Donald Trump’s second term, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador opened the doors of his country’s notorious prison, CECOT, for deportees the Trump administration had swept up and accused of being gang members.

Despite revelations that most of the men had no criminal convictions in the U.S. or proven gang affiliations, as well as concerns about harsh treatment, both presidents touted the move as a win.

Over the past year, FRONTLINE and reporters from the El Salvador news outlet El Faro have been investigating what was behind the controversial deal, and what each president stood to gain.

The team’s findings unfold in The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador, a new documentary premiering Tues., April 7 on PBS and online. It is the newest film from director Juan Ravell and producer Jeff Arak, the duo behind the Emmy-nominated A Dangerous Assignment.

To examine what underpinned the Salvadoran president’s deal with Trump to imprison deportees, Ravell and Arak teamed up with El Faro’s Carlos Martinez and Oscar Martinez, who are now reporting in exile after exposing the Bukele government’s dealmaking with MS-13 and other violent gangs it claimed it was cracking down on.

Through interviews with former U.S. officials, reporters and insiders, The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador shines new light on Bukele’s tangled history with the gangs the U.S. says it is fighting, why Bukele offered to imprison U.S. deportees, and who he asked be returned to El Salvador from U.S. custody in exchange, in what one reporter calls “a deal within a deal.”

For the full story, watch The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador and explore related reporting from El Faro.

The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador will be available to watch starting April 7, 2026. Watch at 10/9c on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel and on PBS stations (check local listings), or stream at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting at 7/6c. The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador will also be available on PBS Documentaries on Prime Video. Subscribe to FRONTLINE’s newsletter to get updates on events, podcasts and additional reporting related to The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador.

Credits The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador is a FRONTLINE Production with Deal 2025 LLC in association with El Faro. The reporters are Carlos Martinez and Oscar Martinez. The co-producers are Pedro Álvarez Gales and Katherine Griwert. The writers are Jeff Arak & Juan Ravell. The producer is Jeff Arak. The director is Juan Ravell. The senior producers are Frank Koughan and Eamonn Matthews. The managing editor of FRONTLINE is Andrew Metz. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 110 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation, as part of the Plum Bush Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Support for The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

About El Faro El Faro is a renowned Central American investigative news site specialized on violence, organized crime, corruption, migration, human rights and politics. It is one of the most prestigious and awarded media in Latin America. El Faro’s newsroom is currently working from exile after intense surveillance, and political and legal harassment from the Bukele government. Founded in 1998 as the first online news site in Latin America, El Faro has become a regional stalwart for independent, transparent and reliable journalism.

Press Contacts: FRONTLINE | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org EL FARO Ana Beatriz Lazo. ablazo@elfaro.net