Nelson Renteria

Behind the high concrete walls of El Salvador's notorious mega-prison, more than 250 Venezuelans deported in March from the United States remain locked up as President Donald Trump ramps up his mass deportations.

As part of a deal reached between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Trump, the United States is paying the Central American country $6 million to hold the Venezuelan deportees and others it claims are gang members.

For nearly 20 years, Antonio Ventura has been handing over $100 a month from the till of his small grocery store in El Salvador's capital to gangsters in extortion payments. It was the only way to avoid death threats at gunpoint, or worse.

Living in a poor San Salvador neighborhood split between areas controlled by the powerful armed street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and its rival Barrio 18, Ventura and other residents were at the mercy of the gangsters.