People detained under El Salvador's state of emergency. Photo: EFE/Rodrigo Sura.
Neither the US nor the Salvadoran authorities have released official lists of the Venezuelans held at the detention center.
This Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights Office expressed its concern about the situation of a group of Venezuelan migrants who, after being deported from the United States to El Salvador, remain in a situation of “complete uncertainty” regarding their whereabouts and conditions.
The concern was expressed by the international organization’s spokesperson, Liz Throssell, who indicated that this situation meets the definition of forced disappearance under international humanitarian law.
According to official US data cited by the spokesperson, the whereabouts of at least 250 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador remain unclear.
The international organization’s concern arises from the fact that, as Throssell explained regarding the migrants, “lawyers don’t know where they are. In fact, no one knows where they are for certain, and we don’t know the legal basis. So that is raising huge human rights concerns.”
#USA: Many families of people deported from US told @UNHumanRights of their feelings of complete powerlessness at not knowing where and how their loved ones are being detained.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) May 13, 2025
Some family members interviewed by the UN Human Rights Office expressed their anguish at not knowing where or under what circumstances their loved ones are.
To date, neither the US nor Salvadoran authorities have released official lists of those detained, and their legal status in El Salvador remains unclear.
According to official US data cited by the UN spokesperson, between January 20 and April 29, 142,000 people were deported from the United States to various parts of the world.
Many of them were deported under the so-called Alien Enemies Act and are considered suspected members of criminal groups. The agency therefore believes they are being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
El Salvador Will Withhold Information About CECOT Prisoners for 7 Years
Information obtained by the UN Human Rights Office from family members and lawyers who have provided information on more than 100 Venezuelans detained at CECOT suggests that in these facilities, “detainees are treated particularly harshly, without access to legal counsel or their relatives, or other contact with the outside world,” as the UN’s report on the press conference states.
Furthermore, the information gathered indicates that many of the detainees were not informed of the US government’s intention to deport them to be detained in a third country, that many lacked access to legal counsel, and that they were unable to challenge the legality of their deportation before being removed.
In this situation, the UN emphasizes that several fundamental rights are at stake, including the right to due process, the right to protection from arbitrary detention, the right to equality before the law, and the right to protection from torture.
It may be noted that there are still disparities within the communications of the UN itself, as this Tuesday the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement pointing to the “biased and cowardly attitude of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, regarding the serious violations committed against Venezuelan citizens abroad.”
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry noted that “the High Commissioner has maintained a complicit silence” by failing to demand their release or issue a clear statement on the abduction of more than 250 Venezuelans in El Salvador, who have been transferred to inhumane detention centers.
(TeleSUR)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SH
