The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. Photo: EFE.
Venezuelan human rights group El Amparo Foundation will file a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and members of his administration for the illegal imprisonment of 252 Venezuelans deported from the United States, with the accusation that they belong to the defunct criminal gang Tren de Aragua. This was announced on Thursday, June 19, by the organization’s president, Walter Márquez.
“We will appeal to the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, to hold Bukele and his chain of command personally responsible for these arbitrary detentions,” Márquez said in a press conference.
He added that the organization will also appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to request precautionary measures for the Venezuelans deported from the United States to El Salvador in March. The IACHR will be requested to ensure that due process is respected and that El Salvador is asked to release the migrants immediately.
Márquez stressed that several detainees in the Salvadoran maximum-security prison, Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), have been mistreated, for which the Salvadoran judiciary should open an investigation ex officio.
Last week, the activist and a group of detained migrants’ family members traveled to El Salvador with the intention of visiting them. However, they did not receive the necessary permissions from Salvadoran authorities.
“We were able to verify that the Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador are totally isolated, incommunicado, without any trial in El Salvador. They have not committed any crime, and there is no clarity about their legal future,” Márquez stated.
Relatives of Venezuelan Abductees in CECOT Denounce Human Rights Violations at UN
Márquez emphasized that none of those illegally deported to El Salvador belong to the defunct criminal gang Tren de Aragua and that this should have been proven in US courts.
“We have already introduced habeas corpus measures for several detainees, and although it should have been an expeditious procedure, so far we have received no response,” he added.
In May, the United Nations determined that these Venezuelans may be in a situation of forced disappearance in El Salvador, given the “complete uncertainty” about their whereabouts and the situation in which they are after being deported from the United States.
UN spokesperson Liz Throssell said at that time that neither the US nor the Salvadoran authorities have published “official lists of the detainees, and their legal situation in El Salvador remains unclear.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
