US/El Salvador: Torture of Venezuelan Deportees

(Washington, DC, November 12, 2025) – The Venezuelan nationals the United States government sent to El Salvador in March and April 2025 were tortured and subjected to other abuses, including sexual violence, Human Rights Watch and Cristosal said in a report released today. The XX-page report, “‘You Have Arrived in Hell’: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador’s Mega Prison,” provides a comprehensive account of the treatment of these people in El Salvador. In March and April 2025, the US government sent 252 Venezuelans, including dozens of asylum seekers, to the Center for Terrorism Confinement (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, CECOT) mega prison in El Salvador, despite credible reports of serious human rights abuses in El Salvador’s prisons. The Venezuelans were subject to refoulement—being sent to where they would face torture or persecution—arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, inhumane detention conditions and, in some cases, sexual violence.