Last week, deportees from Venezuela were repatriated from the United States after an agreement between the United States and the Venezuelan government. Ten Americans in custody in Venezuela and dozens of political prisoners were exchanged against Venezuelan civilians who were stuck in the Cecot in El Salvador. That prison is known as one of the most notorious in the world.
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In interviews, the lawyers of the until recently Venezuelan prisoners confirm the image of the prison. They speak of long -term abuse and humiliations by guards. According to The Atlantic, prisoners were mistreated for six consecutive days after some had tried to force the ditches of their cells. The prisoners were said to have been filmed by guards during the abuses they had to undergo in their bare body.
The lawyer of Edicson David Quintero Chacón, an American deportee who was stuck in Cecot, tells The Guardian that his client was in an isolation cell for a long time and thought he would die. The prisoner would have scars of the daily abuse and with fellow prisoners only had the opportunity to wash with only soap with fellow prisoners.
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Furthermore, food was limited and the drinking water was dirty, according to Quintero Chacón’s lawyer. At night the lights stayed and guards came into the cell to release it. So night’s sleep was not possible. The lawyer says in a complaint: “He will probably carry the psychological consequences of this torture all his life. The courts should never look the other way when those who exercise the power of the US government at the highest level are guilty of such violence imposed by the state.”
Trump sends prisoners to Cecot
In March, the Trump government sent various aircraft to El Salvador, with the 252 Venezuelans on board who, according to Washington, were part of the criminal organization Tren the Aragua. Shortly before, it was labeled as a terrorist organization. To arrest the majority of those men and turn off the country, the Trump government called in the Alien Enemies Act from 1798, a law about foreign enemies used for the last time during the Second World War.
The New York Times managed to reveal serious criminal accusations of only 32 men. Most have no criminal record in the US or elsewhere in the region, apart from immigration violations.