Venezuelan detainees sent by the US to El Salvador have faced systematic torture.

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In March and April 2025, the US government sent 252 Venezuelans to El Salvador, despite well-documented reports of severe human rights abuses in prisons located in the area. The Venezuelan men faced constant beatings and other forms of mistreatment, many of which constitute torture under international humanitarian law.

The acts of violence perpetrated cannot be merely classified as isolated incidents, but rather as a systematic pattern of abuse that persisted throughout their detention. Indeed, every former detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal said they had been exposed to physical and psychological violence almost on a daily basis, throughout their entire detention. 

The Trump administration is implicated in torture and enforced disappearance since it has reportedly paid El Salvador $4.7 million to arbitrarily detain Venezuelans that were later subjected to daily torture. Furthermore, the transfer of Venezuelan migrants to prisons in El Salvador constitutes a violation of the principle of non-refoulement, given the predictable risk of torture to which they were exposed.

A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal outlines in detail the treatment Venezuelan men had to endure in El Salvador. Over 40 people held in CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) were interviewed, alongside 150 people - including relatives and lawyers - who could credibly describe the experience of the detainees.

The governments of the United States and El Salvador accused most of the detainees of being terrorists associated with Tren de Aragua - a Venezuelan organised crime group - but Human Rights Watch and Cristosal found that half of them had no criminal history, either in the United States, Venezuela or other Latin American countries where they had lived. Furthermore, relatives and lawyers reported that 62 Venezuelans were deported while their asylum applications were still pending, despite having successfully passed the initial “credible fear” screening that entitled them to a full hearing before an immigration judge. 

Former detainees provided detailed accounts of the inhumane treatment and prison conditions they were subjected to. Gonzalo Y. stated that guards and riot police beat and abused the Venezuelans constantly: “The guards beat me many times, in the hallways of the prison module and in the punishment cell. They beat us almost every day.” The brutal assaults took place after detainees violated alleged prison rules, such as speaking loudly, showering at the wrong time, or even after requesting medical treatment. A testimony from Daniel B. suggests that guards were convinced their superior supported or tolerated their abusive behaviour. He narrated being hit repeatedly in the stomach to the point where he started choking on his own blood. “My cellmates shouted for help, saying they were killing us, but the officers said they just wanted to make us suffer,” he said. Moreover, three people also reported being victims of sexual violence. One of them told interviewers that he was forced by four guards to perform oral sex on one of them. 

In addition, in CECOT, detainees had to deal with limited access to food, basic hygiene, medicine and educational activities - in violation of the so-called “Mandela Rules”, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners. 

One of the Venezuelan men expressed his grief at receiving such an inhumane treatment: “We are not terrorists, we were migrants. We went to the United States to seek protection and the chance at a better future, but we ended up in a prison in a country we didn’t even know, treated worse than animals.” Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, warned that the US government has not faced allegations related to torture on such a systematic and brutal scale since the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the secret prison network established during the war on terror. “Disappearing people into the hands of a government that tortures them runs against the very principles that historically made the United States a nation of laws.”

written by Sonia Iovine