A report by Human Rights Watch and Central American rights group Cristosal alleges that dozens of Venezuelans deported from the United States to a Salvadoran prison earlier this year were subjected to torture and other serious abuses including sexual violence.
The report released Wednesday includes interviews with 40 of the 252 Venezuelans who were sent to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). They describe being beaten by guards, with some being taken to solitary confinement as punishment for protesting, and others being driven to the brink of suicide.
The report accuses El Salvador’s prison system of systematic human rights violations and the Trump administration of complicity in torture, enforced disappearances and other violations.
In response to a CNN inquiry, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the administration’s decision to send the migrants to Cecot.
“At President (Donald) Trump’s direction, DHS deported nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) Prison in El Salvador, where they no longer pose a threat to the American people,” said a statement attributed to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
CNN also reached out to the Salvadoran presidency and the Salvadoran prisons directorate for comment. In the past, El Salvador’s government has said that it respects the human rights of people in its custody, “regardless of their nationality,” and that its prison system complies with safety and order standards.
“The nightmare began the moment they took me off the plane,” the report quotes Gonzalo, a 26-year-old from Zulia, Venezuela, as saying. Gonzalo claims the migrants were beaten upon landing in El Salvador and that the mistreatment continued when they were transferred to Cecot.
He said a prison official told them, “You have arrived in hell.”
He and others interviewed by HRW and Cristosal alleged that guards periodically assaulted them with kicks, punches and batons during daily cell searches.
Three of the people interviewed said they were subjected to sexual violence, according to the report.
Some of the inmates reported being humiliated by the guards, who allegedly told them they “would never get out alive,” that “nobody knew they were there,” and that “their families had abandoned them.”
Several inmates reported having suicidal thoughts, and at least one said he attempted suicide.
“I fell into depression. I wanted to kill myself because I thought I would be better off dead. In the end, the only thing that gave me strength was God … and my family, my wife, my daughter, and my mother,” another detainee, Nelson, says in the report.
Many of the findings in the report match what several former detainees told CNN in late July, days after being released from Cecot and repatriated to Venezuela.
“Welcome to the hell of Cecot,” Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernández recalled in a CNN interview about his arrival at the Salvadoran prison.
Jerce Reyes, José Mora and Rafael Martínez all told CNN they were frequently beaten by guards – often for disobeying the prison’s strict rules or for reasons they considered unwarranted. They also accused Salvadoran prison authorities of denying them of basic human rights, including access to attorneys and adequate living conditions.
On a hot day, Reyes said he showered to keep cool at a time he wasn’t allowed to. The guards caught him, entered the cell, beat him up and sent him to a smaller isolated cell as punishment, he said.
Martínez alleged that he was once punished for putting his head through the cell bars when he felt sick. He said he was taken to a different cell, where about eight guards beat him and fractured his right arm.
“(The guards) tortured us physically and psychologically,” Mora said.
The men also spoke about going on strike to demand basic rights, including communication with the outside world. But their protests were met with a fierce response from guards, they said.
“When we protested, they shot at us point-blank with rubber bullets, point-blank into the cell,” Mora told CNN. “We were like chickens or rats locked up … and they shot us with rubber bullets.”
The Trump administration accused the deportees, without proof, of being linked to the Tren de Aragua criminal organization.
Human Rights Watch and Cristosal claimed in their report that approximately half of the Venezuelans sent to Cecot had no criminal records and only 3% had been convicted in the United States for a violent or potentially violent crime.
In its response to CNN, DHS insisted the nearly 300 detainees were members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs, saying the groups are “some of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth” and asserted that they “rape, maim, and murder for sport.”
Reyes, Mora and Martínez said they were wrongly accused by US officials of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang and, despite their denials, were deported from the United States.
According to records, Martínez faced robbery charges in the US, pleaded guilty, and was released on bail before being arrested and sent to a Salvadoran prison.
Mora, meanwhile, was imprisoned in Venezuela for drug-related offenses and served his sentence. In the United States, he received traffic violations, according to official records.
CNN verified that Reyes has no criminal record in his home country.