In a new report, Human Rights Watch and Cristosal documented a pattern of severe abuse and procedural failures surrounding the transfer and detention of Venezuelan migrants who were removed by US authorities to El Salvador in early 2025.
Their joint report, “’You Have Arrived in Hell’: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador’s Mega Prison,” describes how people who were apprehended or processed by US agencies were sent to El Salvador and placed in the maximum‑security Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), where survivors and witnesses have reported systematic mistreatment, prolonged isolation, and conditions that the researchers concluded amounted to torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
The report explains that many of the transferred individuals had not been convicted of violent crimes and that the criteria used to identify alleged gang affiliation were unreliable and arbitrary. The report explains that an “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” and other screening tools were applied in ways that assign guilt by association — counting tattoos, clothing, gestures, or social‑media connections as indicia of membership. Experts and family members have described these measures as deeply flawed. Human Rights Watch and Cristosal argue that these procedures produced wrongful classifications and exposed people to foreseeable risks when they were handed over to Salvadoran authorities.
Inside CECOT, the report recounted repeated accounts of physical violence, humiliating treatment, and severe deprivation. Survivors told researchers that guards beat detainees on arrival and throughout their confinement; one detainee said, “They beat us almost every day.” Others described forced head shavings, prolonged solitary confinement in a segregated area known to detainees as “the Island,” and incidents of sexual violence and threats. The report quotes detainees who said that, upon being brought into the facility, officials told them, “You have arrived in hell.”
Human Rights Watch and Cristosal identified patterns of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention. Families report that they were denied information about relatives’ whereabouts for extended periods; some relatives say they received no official confirmation of detention until months later. The organizations describe cases in which detainees were held without meaningful access to counsel, without consistent medical care, and with severely restricted contact with the outside world. The report emphasizes that secrecy and lack of transparency compounded the risk of abuse and make independent monitoring difficult.
The report examines the bilateral and programmatic context for the transfers. It describes US funding and cooperation with Salvadoran security agencies, noting a grant letter and other assistance that the authors say facilitates the operations. Human Rights Watch and Cristosal have also raised legal concerns about the transfers, arguing that sending people to El Salvador in circumstances where they faced a real risk of torture or ill‑treatment violated the principle of non‑refoulment under international law. The organizations have called for the suspension of any arrangements enabling transfers until independent safeguards and monitoring are in place.
Researchers have also scrutinized the legal authorities and administrative mechanisms used to justify the removals. The report points out that a mix of immigration procedures and emergency proclamations have been invoked, and it questions whether adequate legal review and oversight has occurred. The authors argue that the use of expedited or exceptional authorities without transparent safeguards has increased the risk that people could be wrongly designated as security threats and transferred without meaningful procedural protections.
Human Rights Watch and Cristosal documents the human consequences of those policies through detailed interviews with survivors, family members, lawyers, and medical professionals. The report describes physical injuries consistent with beatings, psychological trauma from prolonged isolation and threats, and the long‑term health impacts of inadequate medical care. It recounts the anguish of families who have been unable to locate loved ones and the frustration of lawyers who have faced obstacles in obtaining records or access to clients.
The organizations conclude that the pattern of transfers and the conditions of detention require urgent remedial action. They recommend that the United States immediately halt transfers of third‑country nationals to El Salvador due to the risk of torture or ill‑treatment; disclose any agreements or understandings governing transfers; condition assistance on verifiable human‑rights safeguards; and rescind emergency proclamations or other measures that circumvented normal legal protections. They urge El Salvador to investigate allegations of abuse, ensure independent oversight of detention facilities, provide adequate medical care and legal access to detainees, and hold perpetrators of abuse to account.
