More than 250 Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison have been released and are now speaking publicly about months of systematic abuse they allegedly endured—including torture, sexual assault, and psychological torment that human rights advocates are calling state-sanctioned crimes against humanity.
The men, held for four months at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) before being released July 18 in a prisoner swap with Venezuela, describe a dystopian regime where guards wielded absolute power and basic human dignity was systematically stripped away.
The Deportation Program Under Fire
In March 2025, the Trump administration invoked the rarely-used 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport over 250 Venezuelan men to CECOT, paying El Salvador $6 million to house them1. The administration claimed the men were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has spread across Latin America.
However, that justification has crumbled under scrutiny. A New York Times investigation found that most of the deported men had no criminal records in the United States or the region2. Of the more than 200 men sent to CECOT, only 32 faced serious criminal accusations or convictions, and very few had documented evidence connecting them to Tren de Aragua. Many were reportedly targeted based on tattoos popular in Venezuela but unrelated to gang activity.
“We were mistreated, our rights were violated, crimes against humanity were committed,” Andry Blanco Bonilla, 40, who had sought asylum in the U.S., told NBC News3.
“Welcome to Hell”
From their arrival at CECOT—a fortress-like complex built in 2023 to house El Salvador’s most dangerous criminals—the Venezuelan men say they were subjected to immediate intimidation. Carlos Daniel Terán, a 19-year-old picked up by ICE in Texas, told NPR that a prison warden’s first words were: “You were never going to leave this place”1.
Blanco Bonilla recalls a prison official’s greeting: “Welcome to CECOT. Welcome to hell. You will not be leaving here. Your days are over”3.
The men were shackled so tightly during transport that walking “would give us cuts and bruises,” Blanco Bonilla said. They were held incommunicado for four months with no contact with family members or attorneys—a violation of basic due process rights that immigration attorneys say may constitute unlawful detention.
Systematic Physical Torture
Multiple former detainees describe a pattern of systematic violence that bears the hallmarks of organized torture. Terán told NPR that groups of 40 to 50 guards would enter cells housing 10 men and beat them with batons and heavy boots for minor infractions1.
“Our daily bread there as Venezuelans were beatings, threats. For whatever circumstance,” Andry Hernandez Romero, a 32-year-old gay asylum-seeker, told NBC News3. “If you answer an official, they hit you. If you talk, they hit you.”
The beatings followed a deliberate pattern designed to avoid obvious evidence. “They tried to avoid hitting our faces. They kicked us in the back or ribs,” Blanco Bonilla said. “When they made us get on our knees, they would step on our toes with their boots. They hit us with batons, they hit us on the head”3.
When prisoners protested the conditions through hunger strikes, guards responded with rubber pellet guns, injuring many who were then denied medical care, according to Terán1.
Cover-Up and Medical Complicity
Perhaps most disturbing were allegations that prison medical staff were forced to participate in covering up the abuse. After beatings, guards would bring injured prisoners to a prison doctor who would ask, “You hit yourself. How did you hit yourself?” according to Blanco Bonilla3.
When prisoners tried to tell the truth about their injuries, a guard would hit them with a baton. “I realized that if I didn’t tell them what they wanted, they would keep hitting me,” Blanco Bonilla said, adding that the doctor would then make false reports about the incidents.
Psychological Torture and Sexual Assault
The physical abuse was compounded by sophisticated psychological torture. The prison had a dark isolation room called “La Isla” (The Island) where men were sent for days without food as punishment for infractions as minor as taking an afternoon shower1.
Jerce Reyes, 36, said a prison official “encouraged us to commit suicide” and told him “this is how your whole nightmare ends.” The father of two young daughters said he contemplated suicide but was stopped by thoughts of his family3.
Most shocking are allegations of sexual assault. Hernandez has publicly stated that guards took him to solitary confinement where they “made me kneel, perform oral sex on one person, while the others groped me and touched my private parts” and “stroked me with their batons”3. He said he couldn’t identify the guards because their faces were covered and the room was deliberately kept dark.
The incident left him devastated: “I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do absolutely anything. The only thing I did was stay laying down, look at the toilet, remember my family, asking myself a million questions”3.
Official Denials and Deflection
The response from both governments has been telling. The Salvadoran government has not responded to specific allegations but has previously claimed CECOT operates with “strict respect for human rights”3.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been more aggressive in its denials. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the accounts as “false sob stories” and accused the media of defending “criminal, illegal gang members”1. When asked if the U.S. would continue sending people to CECOT, McLaughlin said dangerous criminals would not be allowed to “terrorize U.S. citizens” regardless of the detention facility used.
Legal Reckoning Begins
The men’s release on July 18—part of a prisoner exchange where Venezuela freed 10 jailed Americans—has opened the door for legal accountability. Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel has filed a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security under the Federal Tort Claims Act, claiming unlawful removal without due process3.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Democracy Defenders Fund are preparing additional lawsuits. “All 252 [of the men] are doing poorly, mentally,” Hernandez said, noting the lasting psychological trauma3.
Venezuela has announced it will investigate El Salvador officials for alleged torture, characterizing the treatment as “state-sanctioned torture”4.
A System Designed for Cruelty
CECOT represents the darkest evolution of President Nayib Bukele’s popular but controversial anti-gang campaign. Built in 2023, the facility was explicitly designed as a place of no return—El Salvador’s justice minister said the only way out was “in a coffin”1.
Human rights groups have long criticized the facility and Bukele’s broader security policies, which have dramatically reduced crime rates but at the cost of mass arrests and systematic violations of due process. The use of CECOT to house U.S. deportees represents a disturbing new chapter in this authoritarian playbook.
Implications for U.S. Immigration Policy
The CECOT revelations raise profound questions about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and its willingness to partner with authoritarian regimes. The use of the Alien Enemies Act—a wartime power from 1798—to deport people without immigration hearings represents a dramatic expansion of executive power that legal experts warn could be applied to any immigrant population.
The targeting of men based largely on tattoos and presumed gang affiliation, combined with the systematic torture they allegedly endured, suggests a level of cruelty and lawlessness that demands congressional investigation and accountability.
As these men rebuild their lives in Venezuela, their testimonies serve as a stark reminder of what happens when democratic institutions fail to protect the most vulnerable. Their stories—of systematic torture, sexual assault, and psychological torment—represent not just individual tragedies but a collective failure of human rights protection that demands justice.
“We entered [CECOT] as 252 strangers, 252 Venezuelans, but 252 brothers came out,” Hernandez said3. Their shared trauma has created bonds that may prove instrumental in the legal battles ahead—battles that will determine whether the United States can be held accountable for partnering with authoritarian regimes in the systematic abuse of human beings.
References
- Martínez-Beltrán, Sergio. “Venezuelan deported to El Salvador mega-prison describes brutal abuse.” NPR, July 28, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/28/nx-s1-5479208/venezuelan-deported-to-el-salvador-mega-prison-describes-brutal-abuse
- Dickerson, Caitlin, et al. “The Trump administration deported hundreds to El Salvador. This investigation reveals who they really were.” The New York Times, July 2025.
- Silva, Daniella and Didi Martinez. “Venezuelans describe being beaten, sexually assaulted and told to ‘commit suicide’ during El Salvador detention.” NBC News, July 28, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/venezuelans-cecot-el-salvador-returned-abuse-rcna220924
- Garcia, Patricia. “Venezuela says it will investigate El Salvador officials over alleged abuse of Venezuelan migrants deported from the US.” CNN, July 21, 2025.
- “Deported Venezuelans describe beatings, abuse in El Salvador’s CECOT prison.” The Washington Post, July 31, 2025.