Relatives of Venezuelan abductees detained in CECOT display posters calling for justice. Photo: EFE.
The report was submitted in physical form. Previously, the letter had been sent, but no response was received.
Relatives of Venezuelan migrants detained in El Salvador for 100 days reported this Tuesday, June 24, to the Secretariat of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on the violations of individual rights faced by the detained migrants.
“We were received and heard individually and collectively, we presented our cases, 252 broken families, our relatives were violated and taken to a CECOT prison in an arbitrary manner, there was no notification, it was under deception, without due process,” declared Mairelys Cacique, who belongs to the committee of relatives of Venezuelan migrants detained in the Central American country.
Cacique, in her role as a mother, requested that the UN agency visit the Salvadoran prison to verify the physical and mental health of her relatives. However, they were informed that an official list of the detainees was needed, which, according to Cacique, has not yet been provided by the Salvadoran authorities. In this regard, she called on the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to provide this information.
The committee’s attorney, Yoemili Velasco, explained that the complaint was submitted in physical form, as they sent the letter on May 15 but have not yet received a response. According to Velasco, the UN received the documentation on Tuesday and is awaiting review and any additional information required to proceed with the investigation.
Additionally, the families met with Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, to discuss cases of Venezuelan mothers deported from the United States without their children. Yosleidi Chacón, another committee member, described the situation as “desperate,” with the United States government detaining children, preventing their mothers from traveling with them to Venezuela.
On May 13, the United Nations Human Rights Office expressed its concern about the situation of the Venezuelan migrants. The UN has indicated that the fate and circumstances of these migrants remain unknown, raising concerns for their well-being.
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For its part, the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office rejected the position of the Supreme Court of El Salvador for evading its constitutional responsibility in response to Caracas’ request to intervene in the case of the 252 migrants.
The migrants were sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador following an agreement between the administration of US President Donald Trump and the government of Nayib Bukele.
In March, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel hundreds of Venezuelans over the age of 14, alleging they belonged to the now-defunct Tren de Aragua (Aragua Train) or lacked a US passport or residency permit. However, Caracas maintains they are ordinary migrants and has called the measure an abduction.
(TeleSUR)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SH