Relatives of Venezuelan migrants illegally imprisoned in El Salvador hold photos of their family members and demand their release. Photo: AFP.
A group of relatives of the Venezuelan migrants illegally imprisoned in El Salvador traveled to El Salvador and demanded that the General Directorate of Penal Centers of El Salvador allow them to visit their incarcerated family members in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The imprisoned Venezuelan migrants, deported to El Salvador from the United States, have been held incommunicado since March 15, without any due process.
The family members of the migrants demanded “proof of life” and details of the health status of the 252 Venezuelans forcibly disappeared by the governments of Donald Trump and Nayid Bukele.
The group of relatives, representatives of the organization Committee for the Defense of Migrants and Families, delivered a legal document to the General Directorate of Penal Centers of El Salvador, with a series of demands such as verifying their state of health, their legal situation, and their immediate release. However, they have not yet received any response from the Salvadoran authorities.
The Trump administration accused Venezuelan migrants of belonging to a defunct criminal gang, Tren de Aragua (Aragua Train), without any evidence, and deported them to El Salvador where they remain incarcerated. Meanwhile, the Nayid Bukele regime has denied the Venezuelan authorities any possibility of legally assisting its citizens.
Families demand justice
On Tuesday, June 10, another group of relatives of Venezuelan nationals imprisoned in El Salvador, representatives of the Committee for the Return of Our Children, met with Venezuelan Ombudsman Alfredo Ruiz, who called for the coordination of all human rights institutions worldwide to end the violation of human rights of Venezuelan migrants who were deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador.
Upon meeting the families, Ruiz said that “the Ombudsperson’s Office has put all its power and all its efforts at the disposal of the families impacted by these unjustified detentions and violations of their human rights.”
On May 15, the Committee for the Defense of Migrants and Families demanded justice and concrete answers from the United Nations Organization (UN), since, thus far, they have not received any response regarding the requests for the release of the 252 Venezuelan migrants who remain unjustly imprisoned in El Salvador.
On May 20, the permanent representative of Venezuela to the United Nations (UN), Claudia Salerno, denounced the United States and El Salvador for actions of flagrant violation of human rights against Venezuelan migrants who were abducted without allowing them to exercise their right to defense and due process.
An investigation conducted by the Cato Institute, a Washington DC-based organization specialized in the defense of civil liberty, revealed that the Trump administration sent at least 50 Venezuelan migrants who had legally entered the US to the CECOT.
(Últimas Noticias) by Olys Guárate
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
