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2h ago

Rights Groups Say Venezuelans Deported by U.S. Were Systematically Tortured in El Salvador’s CECOT

DHS says the deportees were Tren de Aragua and MS-13 members.

Foreign nationals who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, on March 31, 2025.
17 members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang and members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US, in San Salvador, on March 31, 2025.
Inmates remain in their cell at the Centre for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on April 4, 2025.
A plane transporting Venezuelans that were detained in El Salvador arrives at Simon Bolivar International Airport as part of a detainee exchange agreement between Venezuela and United States, in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 18, 2025.

Overview

  • Human Rights Watch and Cristosal released an 81-page report Wednesday alleging systematic torture and other abuses of 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT in March and April 2025.
  • Researchers say roughly half of those transferred had no criminal history and only 3% had U.S. convictions for violent or potentially violent offenses.
  • At least 62 people were deported while their U.S. asylum cases were pending despite passing initial credible-fear screenings, according to relatives and lawyers cited in the report.
  • Former detainees described beatings, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and inhumane conditions, which the groups concluded were part of an institutionalized practice rather than isolated incidents.
  • The report says the U.S. reportedly paid at least $4.7 million to El Salvador related to detention costs and notes unanswered information requests and unresolved habeas petitions seeking accountability.