Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison describe abuse : NPR by way of NewsFlicks

Venezuelan migrants accused by way of the U.S. of belonging to the Tren de Aragua legal gang are noticed being transferred from the Terrorism Confinement Heart (Cecot) in El Salvador ahead of being repatriated to Caracas on July 18, 2025 in L. a. Paz, El Salvador.

El Salvador Press Presidency Place of business/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

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El Salvador Press Presidency Place of business/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

Carlos Daniel Terán, 19, nonetheless recalls the phrases a jail warden advised him when he entered El Salvador’s mega-prison, CECOT.

“He advised us we had been by no means going to go away this position,” Terán recalled.

It was once March of this yr. Terán had simply been transferred from an immigration detention heart in Texas to the infamous Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo — referred to as CECOT — a maximum-security penal complex constructed to deal with accused Salvadoran gang participants. El Salvador’s personal justice minister as soon as stated the one method out of the penal complex was once “inside of a coffin.”

Carlos Daniel Terán, 19, poses at his aunt’s house in Caracas, Venezuela after being launched from a most safety penal complex in El Salvador.

By the use of the Terán circle of relatives

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By the use of the Terán circle of relatives

Terán was once amongst masses of Venezuelans despatched to El Salvador by way of the Trump management, many beneath the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a rarely-used wartime energy. They had been accused — with out proof — of being participants of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. For just about 4 months, the U.S. executive withheld the identities of the boys it deported and barred them from contacting their households or legal professionals.

Then simply over per week in the past, Terán was once a loose guy — launched along greater than 250 different Venezuelan detainees as a part of a prisoner change between the U.S. and Venezuela.

“I assumed this was once going to be the final revel in of my existence,” Terán advised NPR from Caracas. “I assumed I used to be going to die there.”

“Hell on earth”

Since their unencumber, NPR has spoken with Terán and two different former detainees about their time at CECOT. They described being subjected to violence — and, in some instances, sexual abuse — by way of penal complex guards, denied good enough meals, and compelled to bear inhumane prerequisites.

NPR has adopted Terán’s case since he was once first picked up by way of ICE from his house in Texas in February. He had entered the U.S. legally in the course of the Biden-era CBP One program. He has no legal document within the U.S., and denies any gang association. His most effective previous offenses stem from fees in Chile as a minor – of gun ownership and possessing or transporting small amounts of gear.

Like Terán, the opposite Venezuelan’s despatched to El Salvador from the U.S., have denied being affiliated to the Tren de Aragua.

Even if he describes himself as a person of religion, Terán stated his days at CECOT had been in point of fact arduous for him.

“I felt in point of fact unhappy — I spent my birthday there and it was once arduous not to get a choice from my circle of relatives,” he stated.

Juan and Marian, father and stepmother of Carlos Daniel Terán, who was once taken into custody by way of legislation enforcement and immigration officials per week after President Trump took workplace, stand for a portrait in Cedar Park, Texas, on Jan. 29, 2025.

Tamir Kalifa for NPR/Tamir Kalifa

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Tamir Kalifa for NPR/Tamir Kalifa

Within CECOT, he and the opposite prisoners had been not often let loose in their cells. The meals consisted most commonly of beans, tortilla and rice. The bogs of their cells had been ceaselessly clogged. And there was once no air con in spite of the recent and humid climate.

Prisoners may most effective shower in water that was once pumped into two cement tanks constructed into their cells. However most effective as soon as an afternoon, at a time set by way of the penal complex guards. There have been no partitions to split the washing spaces, or the bathroom, from the remainder of the cellular.

The detainees slept on steel planks organized like bunk beds — no mattresses, blankets or pillows. Terán says he slept in a seating place the entire 4 months.

However Terán and the others say the worst section was once how guards used violence in opposition to them.

Andry Hernandez, some of the detainees who was once additionally launched simply over per week in the past, advised NPR that guards mechanically beat prisoners with batons within the hallway — or dragged them to a small, windowless cellular referred to as “L. a. Isla,” or “The Island,” the place the abuse was once much more brutal.

In keeping with Hernandez, 32, the prisoners could be dragged out in their cells for complaining about their prerequisites, taking a bathtub outdoor designated hours, and even for making an excessive amount of noise.

Hernandez, who’s overtly homosexual, stated he was once as soon as taken by way of the guards to “L. a. Isla” after guards spotted him bathing with a bucket outdoor designated hours.

He stated that he was once crushed by way of 3 guards dressed in mask. And compelled to accomplish oral intercourse on some of the guards. After a few hours, he was once dragged again to his cellular.

“CECOT was once hell on Earth,” Hernandez advised NPR from Capacho, Venezuela, the place he is now again together with his circle of relatives.

Andry Hernandez greets his best possible good friend Reina Cardenas, after police drop him off at house on July 23, 2025.

Manuel Rueda

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Manuel Rueda

“Condemned for existence.”

Opened in January 2023 as a part of President Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown, CECOT has remained in large part off-limits to outdoor scrutiny—its symbol tightly managed via polished executive movies and staged photograph ops with visiting officers, together with U.S. Place of birth Safety Secretary Kristi Noem. The Venezuelans launched final week are a few of the first former inmates to talk publicly about what they persevered inside of.

In keeping with the boys NPR spoke to there have been no books at CECOT apart from for Bibles, and prisoners had been most effective allowed to go away their cells every so often to play football within the hallway, or take part in prayer periods led by way of an evangelical pastor who was once additionally an inmate. Hernandez stated that prisoners entertained themselves by way of chatting,or taking part in dominoes or parchis with items that they had constituted of the tortillas they had been served for lunch.

“The guards sought after us to be in overall silence,” Hernandez stated. “However for us that was once very tough, as a result of by way of nature we Venezuelans are a cheerful other folks, who’re aware of joking round, and screaming, even in dire prerequisites.”

Neighbors rejoice Andry Hernadnez’s go back to his native land of Capach on July 23, 2025.

Manuel Rueda

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Manuel Rueda

Andres Morales, a detainee from town of San Antonio, in western Venezuela, advised NPR that the beatings started as quickly because the Venezuelans arrived on the penal complex. Guards advised him he was once “condemned for existence.”

Morales stated that all the way through the primary month in CECOT, the Venezuelan prisoners held a starvation strike that lasted for 3 days, the place they demanded, unsuccessfully, to have touch with their family members, and extra details about their instances. He says that some days later, the prisoners was extra determined and staged a “blood strike.”

Each Terán and Hernandez corroborated Morales’ account.

“One of the crucial prisoners got rid of clamps from the cellular’s piping and used them to chop themselves,” Hernandez advised NPR. He stated he didn’t take part within the protest, however described how different detainees smeared blood at the partitions and wrote the letters “SOS.”

“We had been handled like bargaining chips”

The Trump management paid El Salvador $6 million to deal with the Venezuelan males, after accusing them of being participants of the Tren de Aragua gang.

The Division of Place of birth Safety didn’t reply to the particular allegations made by way of the boys. As an alternative, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin repeated the accusation that they had been participants of the Tren de Aragua gang, however didn’t supply any proof to again the ones claims.

“As soon as once more, the media is falling far and wide themselves to protect legal unlawful gang participants,” McLaughlin stated in an e mail to NPR. “We pay attention a long way an excessive amount of about gang participants and criminals’ false sob tales and no longer sufficient about their sufferers.”

A spokesperson for the federal government of El Salvador didn’t reply to NPR’s request for touch upon any of the allegations.

Noah Bullock, the manager director of Cristosal, a Salvadoran human rights workforce stated that the beatings and probably the most different prerequisites described by way of the Venezuelan prisoners qualify as torture, and that by way of taking the Venezuelan prisoners to El Salvador, with out notifying their legal professionals, or their households, U.S. and Salvadorean government most probably dedicated an act of compelled disappearance.

Venezuelan migrants accused by way of the U.S. of belonging to the Tren de Aragua legal gang are noticed being transferred from the Terrorism Confinement Heart (Cecot) in El Salvador ahead of being repatriated to Caracas on July 18, 2025 in L. a. Paz, El Salvador.

El Salvador Press Presidency Place of business/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

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El Salvador Press Presidency Place of business/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures

“Those are individuals who by no means had a tribulation, who had been by no means convicted of the rest, and had been despatched to a 3rd nation to be put right into a most safety penal complex indefinitely.” Bullock stated. “Simply on the ones grounds, you could have transparent due procedure violations.”

Cristosal carried out background tests on 160 of the 252 Venezuelans despatched to El Salvador and likewise interviewed their households. The group stated that much less than 10% had legal data.

Bullock stated round 400 prisoners have died in Salvadoran custody since March 2022, when President Nayib Bukele declared a state of exception that suspended key due procedure rights. Underneath the measure, government can cling suspects for months with out disclosing their whereabouts or permitting touch with legal professionals or circle of relatives.

“We had been handled like bargaining chips,” Hernandez stated. “I do not perceive why Bukele had to provide his prisons, to kidnap migrants that had by no means set foot in his nation.”