The exchange of prisoners will return to the detainees of the CECOT to Venezuela

An exchange of prisoners will return to Venezuela hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers to whom President Donald Trump sent one of the most notorious prisons of El Salvador.

The Exchange Swapped Venezuelans Being Hed in the Terrorism Confinement Center, Or Cecot, for Americans that were seized by the Venezuelan authorities. The former detainees of Cecot are expected to terrrify in Venezuela later on Friday.

Venezuelans in Cecot were sent there by the Trump administration for indefinite imprisonment in the name of the United States, without charge, trial or sentence. Rather, they were punished for having tried to come to the United States. Many followed legal paths. About half were accused of being “alien enemies” under the Alien enemies law, which means that the Trump administration said, in large part without evidence, they were not only gang members but as members of an invading army.

The Venezuelan government said in a statement On Friday that 252 Venezuelans had been released from Cecot. News reported that 10 Americans were released from Venezuela in return. The United States government has never revealed the total number of Venezuelans that it has sent to CECOT.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed The prisoner changed Friday afternoon in a position on social networks, stating that he had delivered “all Venezuelan citizens detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization of Aragua” in exchange for “a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners” and “all US citizens who were holding as requirements.”

The alleged threat raised by Train de Aragua, a gang that originates in Venezuela that now has a presence in several countries, formed the basis of the CECOT expulsions of the Trump administration. Often without evidence, apart from the common tattoos, such as crowns and watches, the administration accused the Venezuelans who sent Cecot of being gang members. They never had the opportunity to respond to that accusation before being indefinitely banished to the infamous saving prison.

Alex Peña through Getty Images

Michelle Brané, a former Immigration official of the US government.

“The mothers who received calls are directed to Caracas,” Brané said in a brief phone call at noon on Friday. “[The Venezuelan government] Called to some families. They said they were not calling everyone, so they were creating a telephone tree. “

“At least one family confirmed that the government confirmed that their son was on the plane,” said Brané, noting that a case administrator in together and free had spoken with the family in question.

The mother of one of the Venezuelan CECOT detainees sent News themezone images of a bus full of family members arrested on the way to Caracas.

Bloomberg and Reuters First he informed about the possible exchange on Friday, both citing unidentified sources.

Many of Cecot’s detainees were Venezuelans looking for asylum in the United States for fear of violence or persecution at home. Some had pending asylum cases In the United States Immigration Court, when the Trump administration disappeared to the saving prison. Propublic on Friday reportedbased on a case analysis of more than 230 of Venezuelan men sent to El Salvador, that “most men did not hide [U.S.] The authorities, but instead, moved through the nation’s immigration system “and that” more than 60 of them had pending asylum claims, including several that were only a few days after an audience in which a judge could have ruled if they would be allowed to stay. “

The state and national security departments did not immediately respond to News themezone’s investigation on how they determined who would be included in the exchange and if they had sought security protections for those who had fled from Venezuela.

Cecot is known for accusations of torture and inhuman treatment, and has been used for the prison of thousands of Salvadorans. Bukele, who has described himself as “The best dictator in the world“It has governed under one”emergency” in which the constitutional guarantees of due process and Human Rights Defenders and journalists They have been attacked by the Salvadoran government.

Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man from El Salvador who was sent to Cecot based on an “administrative error.” Described in a recent presentation of the Court be beaten, kicked and subjected to psychological abuse while in the megaprison. Abrego Garcia was returned last month, months after the Supreme Court ordered the United States government to facilitate its return, although Trump’s administration brought it back to return to supposedly face criminal charges For allegedly transporting unauthorized migrants within the United States, he declared himself innocent.

The exchange negotiations of previous prisoners failed, in part due to the competitive efforts of the Secretary of State Frame Rubio and Trump’s envoy to Venezuela, Richard Grenelll, The New York Times reported last week. While Rubio was working on an agreement for free Americans held in Venezuela in exchange for some 250 Venezuelan migrants that the United States had sent to El Salvador, Grenell was following a separate agreement in which Venezuela would release American prisoners in exchange for allowing Chevron to continue operating in Venezuela. Rubio confirmed the return of 10 Americans on a Friday statementthanking Bukele for his work in the deal.

The White House repeatedly affirmed that he had no authority over the people he sent to CECOT, despite Paying the Salvadoran government millions of dollars to detain non -American citizens. Salvadoran officials said The work group of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on forced or involuntary disappearances that “the jurisdiction and legal responsibility of these [Venezuelan detainees in CECOT] Touquet exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of the international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of international sovereignty and cooperation in criminal matters. “

The exchange of prisoners suggests that the Trump administration really had control over those imprisoned in CECOT, and chose to use them as political negotiation chips.

It is not clear exactly how many Venezuelans the Trump administration sent to Salvadoran prisons. Neither the governments of the United States nor the saviors have published a complete list of detainees, and the refusal of governments to recognize detainees, combined with the imprisonment of detainees in an unconfirmed place, led human rights experts to call arrests “Forced disappearances. “

When the first detainees were transferred in March, News published An internal government list of 238 names of Venezuelan detainees who had been transferred to El Salvador. Subsequent transfers brought the estimated number up to 252 Venezuelans in Salvadoran detention, with 36 additional Salvadoran immigrants to the United States that are believed to be transferred to CECOT.

But 404 average, informing about a pirated material from an immigration and customs compliance contractor, on Thursday reported: “The flight is manifested by three deportation flights legally played from Texas to El Salvador contains additional dozens and not counted for passengers that a list of people from the National Security Department published (DHS) deported by the United States on those flights.” The departure published the additional names he had reviewed.

The fight for the legal rights of CECOT detainees has developed both in US and international courts. In May, four human rights groups presented an emergency complaint Against the arrests with the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights, saying that they violated regional and international human rights agreements and agreements. The groups sought “precautionary measures”, which are urgent steps that IACHR can request states to protect human rights. In recent days, El Salvador was Due to responding to the request of the commission to obtain more information, although the answer would not have been public.

On Friday, in response to the reports of the exchange of detainees, the groups behind the iachr complaint emphasized the need for the responsibility of the governments of the United States and Salvadorans, and expressed concern that Venezuelans were sent back to the country that many of them had fled.

“Even if Cecot arrest ends for some Venezuelan migrants today, they are returning to a serious risk of damage to a regime that systematically violates human rights,” wrote Julio Henríquez, a lawyer of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University, in a statistict.