BURLINGTON, VT— Today, leading human rights organizations, from both the United States and El Salvador, released a new report on the shocking conditions in El Salvador’s infamous anti-terrorism prison, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) released the following reaction to the report:
“The findings in this report are horrific, and they are doubly disturbing because the United States is directly implicated. It would not be an exaggeration to describe what is happening daily in CECOT as President Bukele’s Abu Ghraib.
“What happened to those 40 men is shocking, but it was not unique to them. The abuses and deprivations they describe are endemic inside the walls of CECOT. These men were forcibly disappeared, which is a crime in this country and a violation of international law. From their first day behind CECOT’s walls, each of them was subjected to near-daily beatings, food and medical deprivation, and other inhumane and appallingly degrading treatment.
“Nobody defends the heinous crimes and corruption perpetrated by Tren de Aragua and other violent criminal organizations. They have terrorized the people of Venezuela, El Salvador, and many other countries. Those who commit such atrocities should be brought to justice. President Bukele’s Kafkaesque response to these criminal gangs is a prison that the guards describe as ‘hell’ and where everyone, innocent or guilty, is labeled a terrorist. Criminal proceedings, if one can call them that, are conducted en masse and make a mockery of due process.
“President Trump has feted Bukele in Washington and praised his leadership. Bukele has called himself the world’s “coolest dictator”. There is one thing President Bukele should remember: President Trump’s term expires on January 20, 2028, after which he will no longer be there to turn a blind eye to Bukele’s role in presiding over the torture and denial of fundamental rights of tens of thousands of prisoners, many of whom have no affiliation with violent gangs. Sooner or later the law will catch up to President Bukele, and there will be accountability for what is happening in CECOT.
“Until then, or for as long as torture continues in El Salvador’s prisons, the Trump Administration must stop deportations to El Salvador. It is immoral for the United States to be paying Bukele to lock up deportees knowing they will be brutalized and denied due process.”
The 81-page report contains detailed, first-hand accounts of 40 Venezuelan prisoners in CECOT who were deported by the Department of Homeland Security and then returned to Venezuela in exchange for 10 American citizens or permanent residents who had been detained by President Maduro. Report investigators found no evidence that any of the Venezuelans in their report were members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, and the Trump Administration has never produced any evidence that they were. Almost none of them were ever convicted of any crime, in Venezuela or the United States.
At least 62 of the men in the Human Rights Watch-Cristosal report had fled Maduro’s repression or violence in Venezuela and had pending asylum cases in the United States, before they were arbitrarily rounded up and deported. According to the report, Department of Homeland Security agents lied to them about where they were being sent and refused their requests to contact their families. During the almost four months they were in CECOT, they had no access to lawyers or their families.
Excerpts from Human Rights Watch/Cristosal Report
Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador’s Mega Prison
November 12, 2025
People held in CECOT said they were beaten from the moment they arrived in El Salvador and throughout their time in detention. Guards and riot police beat them in the hallways of the prison module and in a solitary confinement cell in a section of CECOT known as “the Island.” They beat them during daily cell searches for allegedly violating prison rules, such as speaking loudly with other detainees or showering at the wrong time, and sometimes for requesting medical treatment.
People held in CECOT said that many detainees were also beaten after US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s visit in March, following visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in May and June, and after two prison protests occurring in April and May.
Human Rights Watch and Cristosal concluded that the cases of torture and ill-treatment of Venezuelans in CECOT were not isolated incidents by rogue guards or riot police, but rather systematic violations that took place repeatedly during their detention. Every former detainee interviewed reported being subjected to serious physical and psychological abuse on a near-daily basis, throughout their entire time in detention.
These beatings and other abuses appear to be part of a practice designed to subjugate, humiliate, and discipline detainees through the imposition of grave physical and psychological suffering. Officers also appear to have acted on the belief that their superiors either supported or tolerated their abusive acts.
Three people held in CECOT told Human Rights Watch and Cristosal that they were subjected to sexual violence. One of them said that guards took him to “the Island,” where they beat him. He said four guards sexually abused him and forced him to perform oral sex on one of them. “They played with their batons on my body.” People held in CECOT said sexual abuse affected more people, but victims were unlikely to speak about what they had suffered due to stigma.
The United States sent the 252 Venezuelans to CECOT despite credible prior reports that torture and other abuses were taking place in El Salvador’s prisons. This violates the principle of non-refoulement, established in the Convention against Torture, among others.
In at least 19 cases, people held in CECOT or their relatives said they fled Venezuela to escape threats, abuses, or persecution by state security forces, as well as threats posed by armed and criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua. Their allegations indicate that these individuals fled persecution and, in many instances, articulated strong claims for asylum.”
Human Rights Watch analyzed data on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations that ICE released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy. The data indicates that at least 48.8 percent of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador on March 15, March 30, and April 12—the dates of flights Human Rights Watch confirmed transported Venezuelans to CECOT—had no criminal history in the United States. Only 8 (3.1 percent) had been convicted of a violent or potentially violent offense. The data only includes information on 226 of the 252 Venezuelan people who were held in CECOT.
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