Venezuelan Deportees Were Routinely Tortured in El Salvador's CECOT Prison, Human Rights Watchdog Says

Venezuelan migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador in March and April 2025 were subjected to torture, sexual violence, and other mistreatment inside the country's high-security CECOT prison, according to a 90-page report published Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal.

The organizations said 252 Venezuelans were transferred directly upon arrival to the Terrorism Confinement Center, where detainees faced "systematic human rights violations," including arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. HRW said both the U.S. and Salvadoran governments refused to disclose the individuals' whereabouts.

The report also described routine beatings by guards and riot police, including "the use of batons, punches and kicks," and said violence intensified after visits by foreign officials. Three former detainees also reported sexual abuse. Prisoners were held in prolonged isolation with limited access to hygiene, food, or medical care. Some said guards told them they would "never leave alive" and that their families had abandoned them.

HRW said the return of deportees to El Salvador violated the international principle of non-refoulement, citing what it called a foreseeable risk of torture and abuse. Lawyers told the group that detainees' relatives could not locate them and that U.S. immigration authorities removed their names from the online ICE detainee tracking system.

According to another passage of the report, detainees were initially told they would be flown to Venezuela but were instead taken to CECOT without trial or judicial orders.

The groups said almost half (48.8%) of the Venezuelans deported had no criminal record in the United States and at least 62 were expelled despite having active asylum claims and passing initial "credible fear" screenings. Former detainees said guards hid their identities behind masks and used pseudonyms and some cells lacked mattresses or bedding. One detainee said he was repeatedly beaten after refusing to display a genital body modification to guards.

The report also cited accounts that detainees were assaulted after shouting "we are migrants, not terrorists" during a brief March 2025 visit by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. According to testimony, guards restricted food and water following the incident.

The organizations urged the United States to halt transfers of third-country nationals to El Salvador:

"We also urge foreign governments and international human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, to substantially step up their public scrutiny of the US government's human rights violations against migrants as well as El Salvador's widespread human rights violations against detainees"

The findings follow criticism by Human Rights Watch in September of U.S. military strikes on Venezuelan vessels in international waters. In a statement, Sarah Yager, Washington director of HRW, called the attacks "unlawful extrajudicial killings," arguing U.S. forces are not permitted to "summarily kill people they accuse of smuggling drugs."