El Salvador

A federal judge gave the U.S. Department of Justice an additional day to answer questions about three deportation flights to El Salvador after his order Saturday for the planes to return to the United States. The government motioned Wednesday for more time to answer Judge James Boasberg’s questions about the deportation flights, calling the judge’s queries “a picayune dispute...

A federal judge gave the Justice Department an additional day to answer questions about three deportation flights to El Salvador. News4’s Paul Wagner reports the judge wants to know if the government ignored his Saturday order that the planes return to the United States.

Current laws “would categorically preclude most U.S. citizens and residents from serving their sentence in El Salvador,” a former U.S. attorney said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security says about 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 200,000 El Salvadorans already living in the United States can legally remain another 18 months.

Flor de Café, a Salvadoran dance group based in Northern Virginia, preserves the culture through folklorico. News4’s Mauricio Casillas reports.

For the first time, Salvadorans living abroad were able to vote in their country’s presidential election, and several celebrated the expected reelection of Nayib Bukele. News4’s Freixys Casado has more on the historic turnout. 

For the first time, thousands of Salvadorans living abroad were able to vote in their country’s presidential elections at seven sites across the DMV.

To many, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is a national hero who took on the country’s violent gangs with an unrelenting hand. To others, the populist is a 21st century autocrat who has committed mass human rights abuses and has altered the rules of the game to concentrate power in his own hands.

The vice president of El Salvador, Félix Ulloa, praised the new system that allows Salvadorans abroad to cast their vote this presidential election period, which began on Saturday, in an exclusive interview in Spanish with our sister station Telemundo 44. 

In El Salvador, the second Sunday of November is known as Pupusa Day, a delicious party for the crispy and cheesy Salvadoran national dish. News4’s Tommy McFly gets the 101 on how to celebrate and make a delicious pupusa.

News4’s Alberto Pimiento spoke to the owners of an acclaimed Maryland barbecue restaurant.