Repatriated Venezuelans Denounce ‘Abuse and Torture’ in El Salvador’s CECOT Mega Prison
Caracas launched an investigation into President Nayib Bukele and two Salvadoran officials over alleged human rights abuses against Venezuelan migrants.
Caracas, July 23, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A group of Venezuelan men forcibly deported from the US and detained in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison accused Salvadoran authorities of systematic torture, beatings, sexual abuse, and medical neglect.
At a press conference on Monday, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab presented testimonies from several men detailing the abuse they endured in the infamous prison.
In the first video shown on Monday, a number of returned migrants recounted their experiences of daily mistreatment and torture while being held in CECOT. One of them, whose name was not mentioned, described how prison officers frequently beat them for actions such as “showering, speaking, or asking for water.”
The Venezuelan nationals also recounted being mistreated in front of the prison’s medical staff and being coerced into lying to Red Cross visitors. “They forced me to say I fell off a bunk bed,” another man said in the video, referring to a wound on his forehead.
In a separate video, 25-year-old Maiker Espinoza Escalona described the CECOT prison as “unfit to hold human beings,” denouncing a putrid feces smell that was making detainees ill, while they were subjected to “torture in an abrupt and inhumane manner.”
Espinoza arrived in Texas in May 2024 with his partner, Yorely Bernal Inciarte, and their baby daughter, Maikelys. They surrendered to immigration officers and spent months in separate detention facilities while Maikelys was placed in US foster care.
The couple was profiled as gang members based on their tattoos. In March of this year, they were transferred to El Salvador’s high-security prison alongside 251 men and seven women. Two-year-old Maikelys remained in the US until her repatriation to Venezuela in May, where she was reunited with her mother through efforts by the Maduro government. On Saturday, Maiker was finally able to join his partner and daughter once more.
They are part of the 252 Venezuelan migrants who were repatriated on Friday in exchange for 10 US nationals and a reported 80 Venezuelans jailed in the Caribbean nation as part of a negotiation between the Nicolás Maduro and Donald Trump governments. The men were detained under a Washington–San Salvador agreement at a rate of $20,000 per detainee per year, while the seven migrant women were sent back to the US and subsequently deported to Venezuela.
The migrant men had been detained in CECOT since March after being forcibly expelled from the United States under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, based on allegations of belonging to the so-called Tren de Aragua gang. However, they were never formally charged.
Subsequent investigations and intelligence reports contradicted the Trump administration’s claims, revealing that most of the men had no criminal record. Authorities were found to profile migrants based on tattoos and social media posts.
Despite travelling to El Salvador and requesting visits to the country’s judicial authorities, their families and lawyers had no contact with them until their liberation last week.
A third testimonial video presented on Monday featured makeup artist and actor Andry José Hernández Romero, who denounced “physical and psychological aggression” and sexual assault by CECOT prison guards.
“We thought we were left for dead, that we would never see our loved ones again,” the young man expressed.
Hernández arrived at the San Ysidro border crossing in August 2024 for an asylum appointment and was held under US custody and later sent to El Salvador due to wrist tattoos of a crown that represent the Three Wise Men Foundation, a Venezuelan cultural organization where he was a performer. The Three Wise Men is a religious and cultural celebration observed for over 100 years in the makeup artist’s hometown of Capacho Nuevo, Táchira State.
Hernández’s relatives in Venezuela said they lost contact with him on March 14, when he told them that he was being deported to Venezuela. He, like the other deportees, was unaware that he was actually being sent to CECOT.
In a fourth testimonial video, several men denounced being denied food and water, refused access to a phone call, placed in solitary confinement, and beaten to the point of unconsciousness.
Eude José Torres Herrera said that he was hit in the face, dislocating his jaw. Rodolfo Mayor stated that one of his molars was removed with pliers, and that he was beaten and shot in the chest with a pellet gun. “They beat me so badly that I urinated blood for a week and fractured a rib,” Mayor recounted.
Venezuelan authorities announced an investigation into El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro, and Head of Prisons Osiris Luna Meza for human rights violations against the 252 Venezuelan migrants.
During Monday’s press conference, the attorney general urged the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations Human Rights Council, and other international organizations to follow suit and investigate the “intellectual and material authors” of the reported abuses.
The CECOT mega-prison, opened in early 2023, was constructed to detain alleged gang members as part of Bukele’s crackdown on gangs. His administration has drawn extensive criticism over violations of due process and inhumane incarceration conditions.
