Overview
- Human Rights Watch and Cristosal say 252 Venezuelans sent in March and April 2025 suffered systematic beatings, sexual violence, incommunicado detention, and inhumane conditions at El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
- The groups cite interviews, forensic reviews, and ICE data to conclude the abuses were organized by guards and riot police rather than isolated acts, with some detainees reporting reprisals after ICRC inspections and a visit by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
- Roughly half of those transferred had no criminal record and only 3% had U.S. convictions for violent or potentially violent offenses, while dozens were removed despite pending asylum claims.
- The organizations say the U.S. provided at least $4.7 million tied to the detentions, as DHS defends the removals as targeting Tren de Aragua and MS-13 members it labels terrorists.
- Salvadoran authorities sent the group to Venezuela in July in a swap that freed 10 U.S. citizens or residents, and the report urges independent investigations and an end to third‑country removals to El Salvador.