Now That They’re Free: Venezuelan Men Sent To CECOT On What They Endured

Now That They’re Free: Venezuelan Men Sent To CECOT On What They Endured

This story was originally published by ProPublica, along with The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Cazadores de Fake News. Republished under ProPublica’s CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to …

Torture at CECOT: Venezuelan Men Freed from Salvadoran Prison Describe Brutal Beatings, Humiliation

A new investigation reveals the months of physical and mental abuse Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration endured inside a Salvadoran prison. The men describe beatings, medical neglect and unhygienic conditions in CECOT, where a prison director reportedly told them, “Welcome to Hell, where you enter alive and leave dead.” Of the 238 Venezuelan men who were held in El Salvador, at least 197 had not been convicted of any crime. “The a