4 months in prison in El Salvador

They said they were chained, beaten, shot with rubber bullets and executed in gas chambers.

They said they were punished by being trampled, kicked and forced to kneel for several hours in a dark room called an island.

One man said officers placed his head in a tank of water to simulate drowning.

Another said he was forced to practice. oral sex To the security guard.

They said officials told them they would die in an El Salvadoran prison.

When they could no longer take it anymore, they cut themselves and wrote messages of protest on the bloody sheets.

” “everyone they are terrorists. ”» Edwin Melendez, 30, recalled what the officer told him.

From the moment the president takes office, donald trump He has a firm grasp of what he calls the threat posed by Venezuela and its authoritarian president; Nicolas Maduroaccuses government and Venezuelan gangs of orchestrating ‘invasion’ of US

In March and April, the Trump administration sent 252 Venezuelan men to a prison known as El Salvador’s Penitentiary. anti-terrorism confinement centerThey claimed to have invaded the United States in a form of “illegal war.”

Trump accused the men of being gang members. Aragua trainworked closely with the Venezuelan government.

It was one of the first moves in a conflict with Maduro’s regime that has only escalated since then, with a U.S. warship sinking a Venezuelan ship and President Trump warning of a possible military attack on Venezuelan territory.

But the men received little or no due process before being deported to an anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Suddenly released in Julyas part of a broader diplomatic deal that includes the release of 10 Americans and U.S. residents held in Venezuela.

Interviewed by the New York Times 40 of the former prisoners.

Then he asked the group. independent forensic experts It will help investigations into torture allegations assess the reliability of the men’s testimony.

Several doctors on the team said the men’s accounts and the photographs they described of the wounds were consistent and reliable, saying:convincing evidence” upholds accusations of torture

Luis Chacon, 26, was one of several men who said abuse in prison had led them to consider suicide.

The father of three said he worked as a bus driver. Uber Eats in Milwaukee before being arrested and sent to jail.

The worst moment, he said, was his oldest son’s seventh birthday in June.

“I heard that if one of us dies, we will all be released,” he said.

He thought maybe he should be that person.

He said he climbed onto his bunk bed and tried to hang himself with the sheets.

Other men beat him, he said.

Following the men’s accusations and the experts’ conclusions, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson said:

“President Trump is committed to keeping his promise to the American people by removing dangerous criminals and illegal alien terrorists who pose a threat to the American people.”

presidential agent naive boucle El Salvador’s government did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has never released a complete list of the 252 Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador or the crimes they claim to have committed.

Using the leaked list of names, the Times found: 13% The men appear to have faced serious criminal charges or convictions elsewhere in the world.

(The Times checked several public records databases, but the U.S. government may have more information that it has not made public.)

Of the 40 men interviewed for this story, the Times found criminal charges other than immigration and traffic violations against three of them.

Victor Ortega, 25, is “pending charges for discharging a firearm and robbery,” the Trump administration said.

Neilver Leon, 27, was fined on a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

In addition, Chacon was arrested on domestic violence charges in 2024 and charged with robbery at a Walmart store this year, according to U.S. public records.

(Public records show the domestic violence case was dismissed and Chacón was sent to El Salvador before the robbery case was resolved.)

Many of the men say they still don’t understand why they ended up in a terrorist prison.

“I moved so I could buy a house and give my daughter a better education, which I didn’t have,” said Marvin Yamalte, 29.

A swarm of helicopters surrounded the airport.

It was just after midnight on March 16th.

As the plane descended, Venezuelans said they saw police in riot gear waiting.

Signs indicated the landing site was El Salvador.

In U.S. detention centers, detainees recalled that U.S. officials told them they would be deported to Venezuela.

Now, an El Salvadoran official boarded the plane.

“You stay here,” Iscabel Peñalosa, 25, recalled officials telling them.

Several men recalled Salvadoran officials wearing bulletproof vests and carrying batons boarding the plane and beginning to forcibly remove the group.

“They started beating us all,” said Andri Hernández, 32, a makeup artist who has been detained in the United States since crossing the border in 2024.

“If I raised my head even slightly, I was pushed to the ground. Many of my classmates suffered broken noses, split lips, and bruises on their bodies.”

Hours later, Bukele posted a video of his arrival, complete with action movie-like music and drone footage.

“We continue to make progress in the fight against organized crime,” Bukele wrote on social platform X.

“But this time, we’re also helping our allies.”

The men said they were told in prison that they were gang members. Aragua train

“‘Welcome to hell,'” Aniello Sarabia, 20, recalled being told upon arrival.

“‘They’re just going to come out of here in body bags.'”

President Trump invoked the Enemy Alien Act to send Salvadoran men to prison. This is an 18th century law that was rarely used, allowing the deportation of people from invaded countries.

This was the first step in a broader lawsuit that the Trump administration has been pursuing.

President Maduro poses a serious threat to U.S. national security by flooding the country with immigrants, crime, and drugs.

Many of the men held in El Salvador’s prisons say they were fleeing Maduro’s regime when they moved north, rather than cooperating with him.

The men said prison sentences often appeared random and disproportionate.

Bathing was only allowed from 4am.

Ex-prisoners say the men, sometimes doused with water to cool themselves, were sent to the island, where they were beaten by several guards at once.

Many of the men testified that guards forced them to kneel with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, then held them in a “crane” position by lifting them up by their arms.

Tensions escalated in April.

Two men in nearby cells said when several men asked one of the guards to stop banging on the cell bars at night, the guards dragged them into the central area and fired tear gas in their faces.

Andris Cedeño, 23, started having convulsions.

“Boss, I have asthma,” he reportedly shouted.

What the security guard did was “laughable,” he said.

After that, Cedeño went limp and lost consciousness.

Men who witnessed the attack said they thought he was dead.

Prisoners threw soap and glasses of water at them in fear and anger, they recalled.

The next day, they decided to stop eating in search of better treatment.

They then began cutting themselves on metal bed ladders and the rough edges of plastic pipes, and using blood to write messages on sheets hanging from the pipes, several men said.

According to the men, the hunger strike lasted four days.

Hernandez, a makeup artist, said she was then sent to an isolation room by police officers.

There, he said, a hooded security guard bent over him and forced him to perform oral sex.

In May, a raid on one of the cells turned violent, many inmates recalled, and some men tore pieces of metal from the bed and began using them to break the lock on the cell door.

In an instant, the door swung open.

The officers responded with guns and, inmates said, rubber bullets.

Ortega said a projectile bounced off his forehead, causing him to bleed profusely.

Luis Rodriguez, 26, said his hand was torn open by the gunshot.

Jose Carmona, 28, said he was hit in the thigh.

After this attempted rebellion, authorities forcibly relocated many men, including Chacón, to the island.

There, he said, “They put our heads in a water tank as if to drown us, then they took it out and hit us in the ribs and legs with whatever they found.”

Far from the prison, U.S. and Venezuelan diplomats were negotiating an agreement that would determine the prisoners’ fate.

Maduro last year imprisoned US citizens and permanent residents in a bid to gain influence in Washington.

In July, it agreed to release 10 of them, along with 80 Venezuelan political prisoners, in exchange for 252 men imprisoned in El Salvador.

In interviews, released prisoners reported ongoing physical and mental health problems, which they attributed to beatings and other abuse.

Blurred vision; recurrent migraines. Difficulty breathing. Pain in shoulders, back and knees. nightmare. insomnia

A medical report from October said Cedeno, 23, who suffers from asthma, had been hospitalized twice since returning to Venezuela, once for an asthma attack that left him unconscious and once for a heart attack.

He said he can’t sleep at night because of the sounds of handcuffs, the voices of Salvadoran officials and banging on his cell door.

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