A guard looks at the detainees inside a cell in the Salvadoran mega-prison CECOT. Photo: EFE.
A group of 43 Democrat members of the US Congress, including 21 influential senators, demanded that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem immediately disclose the full details of the agreement between the governments of the United States and El Salvador that allowed the deportation of 252 Venezuelans from the US to the Salvadoran mega-prison CECOT in March-April 2025.
In a long letter, the lawmakers called the episode “a stain on the country’s moral conscience” and called for urgent action to prevent the United States from becoming complicit in serious abuses against migrants.
The demand comes a week after the publication of the report by the Salvadoran organization Cristosal and Human Rights Watch, titled “You Have Arrived in Hell,” which documents a systematic pattern of torture, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and cruel treatment of Venezuelan migrants in Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s maximum-security prison, described by various organizations and governments as a concentration camp.
The congress members stressed that the report’s findings reveal not only atrocities committed on Salvadoran territory but also the direct responsibility of the US government, which allegedly violated the principle of non-refoulement and transferred $4.76 million in public funds to the Bukele government to finance the detention of migrants, relying solely on Salvadoran diplomatic assurances of respect for the UN Convention against Torture.
The letter adds that the experiences recounted by Venezuelans completely fall within the international definition of torture. HRW and Cristosal interviewed 40 out of the 252 kidnaped migrants after they were released and sent to Venezuela. Around 150 people with direct knowledge of the events were also interviewed for preparing the report.
Every one of the interviewees reported daily beatings, deprivation of water and food, sexual violence, a total lack of medical care, isolation, threats, and humiliation. Many continue to suffer physical consequences and severe trauma.
The US lawmakers also underscored a critical point: the testimonies about the manipulated and grotesque treatment during official US visits. According to the detainees, during Secretary Noem’s visit on March 26, CECOT guards provided the detainees with personal hygiene supplies, bedsheets, and mattresses solely to showcase better conditions.
Thirty minutes after Noem left, several detainees who protested were brutally beaten and denied food and water for the rest of the day. Other similar episodes reportedly occurred after visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross or following protests by the illegally detained migrants.
El Salvador Denies Legal Responsibility For Arbitrarily Detained Venezuelan Migrants
Despite the fact that human rights organizations have been warning for years about torture, disappearances, and inhumane treatment in Salvadoran prisons—especially since the 2022 “state of exception”—the Department of Homeland Security decided to send Venezuelans to CECOT, and the State Department authorized funds for its maintenance.
In their complaint, the Democrat lawmakers demanded precise answers by December 10. The demands include:
- The complete terms of the bilateral agreement between the US and El Salvador,
- The identity of the official who authorized the $4.76 million transfer,
- The conditions (if any) that accompanied those funds,
- The risk assessments conducted before the transfer,
- Whether these findings will be included in the State Department’s 2026 Human Rights Report.
The letter is signed by some of the most influential US senators in foreign policy: Tim Kaine, Chris Van Hollen, Jeanne Shaheen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden, Cory Booker, Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Alex Padilla, Mazie Hirono, Bernie Sanders, and Adam Schiff.
Other signatories include prominent members of Congress, such as Gregory Meeks, Joaquin Castro, Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and James McGovern.
The situation could become a critical flashpoint between the US Congress and the Trump administration, just as Washington is trying to reshape its hemispheric immigration policy. It also reopens a debate about the US role in foreign prison facilities accused of state crimes.
Meanwhile, the Bukele government has not officially responded to the accusations, but has repeatedly defended its prison policy as a “global model against crime,” despite international reports describing CECOT as a center of extreme punishment, mass isolation, and the absence of basic safeguards.
The 43 Democrat lawmakers warn that the United States cannot maintain a policy that exposes vulnerable migrants to torture and abuse, and they cautioned that this crisis constitutes an ethical and legal challenge that “the country cannot allow to be repeated.”
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
