Venezuela condemns torture of migrants in CECOT. Rubio criticizes "arbitrary detentions” by Venezuela: two pots calling kettles black
Venezuela promises formal investigation, saying "migrating is not a crime, torture is."
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Monday presented testimony from migrants arbitrarily detained in the US and then shipped to the infamous “anti-terrorism center” CECOT in El Salvador.
In the statements, men who had been held at CECOT described torture conditions including beatings, sexual abuse, rotten food, and being forced to undergo medical procedures without anesthesia.
In the testimonies, several of the former detainees showed bruises on their bodies, marks of being shot with rubber bullets, or beatings, and one had a split lip. They claimed they were also tear-gassed in their cells for speaking to prison officials and forced to drink filthy unsafe water.
The men had no access to lawyers or any way to contact relatives. The last time many of them were seen was when Bukele’s government issued photos of them arriving at the prison shackled, verbally and physically abused, and with their heads shorn — a video shared by both US President Donald Trump, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Saab promised an investigation of conditions at the facility, saying some of the men tried to end their own lives rather than face continued torture.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also commented on the swap in statements on national television. “We have rescued the 252 Venezuelans from the concentration camps, who were savagely tortured, we brought one who lost a kidney due to the beatings", said the Chavista leader.
"These Venezuelans were kidnapped in the United States and taken to El Salvador without having committed any crime in that country. Migrating is not a crime, kidnapping and torturing migrants is. Sooner or later there will be justice with Bukele for what they have done," he continued.
Venezuela is under a Hague investigation for holding political prisoners under torture conditions, accusations often raised by Venezuelan opposition politicians and Washington.
The United States accused 252 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador of belonging to the Train de Aragua, a Venezuelan-born criminal gang that President Donald Trump declared a “terrorist organization,” without evidence.
The president invoked a 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel the Venezuelans, who were arrested arbitrarily in the US, in March on an expedited basis.
The men were traded for 10 US citizens detained in Venezuela and the release of an undisclosed number of Venezuelan political prisoners.
In public statements Rubio described the detentions as “arbitrary.”
He’s right. Venezuela often arbitrarily detains foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips, and often conducts prisoner swaps with Washington.
A shame his government has stooped to using the same tactics.
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
Venezuela condemns toruture on prisoners, unlike THEIR torture on prisoners.