
Venezuela says it will investigate El Salvador officials over alleged abuse of Cecot detainees deported from US
Some 252 Venezuelans, who had been imprisoned at the notorious Cecot prison in March following their deportation, were released and returned to their home country on Friday in exchange for 10 US nationals and dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners, US officials said.
As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours El Salvador's Cecot prison, CNN's David Culver takes you inside - offering a rare look at the controversial mega-prison where some alleged gang members deported from the US are now ending up. Venezuela has previously accused El Salvador of kidnapping the detainees after it agreed with the US to take them into custody. El Salvador claimed the detainees had ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though immigration attorneys, advocates and family members have pushed back on that, claiming in many cases that the detainees had no criminal record.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab held a press conference Monday to address the alleged mistreatment, showing edited footage of some of the detainees talking about their experience at the prison. Saab said officials have gathered 123 complaints of abuse, including reports of sexual assault, torture and beatings by Salvadoran prison guards.
In one of the videos, a man says he was sexually abused.
In another, several detainees who claim to have been beaten and shot at with pellets and pepper spray show what appear to be bruises and scars all over their bodies.
CNN cannot independently verify the extent of the injuries, when they were sustained, or whether the men were speaking under duress. It has reached out to the Salvadoran presidency for comment.
In the past, the Bukele administration has said it respects the human rights of those in custody 'without distinction of nationality' and that its prison system meets safety and order standards.
Venezuela has itself faced accusations of abuse in its prisons, but its government insists it respects the rights of inmates.
The released migrants have not yet been reunited with their families in Venezuela. Authorities say they are undergoing health, immigration, and criminal background checks, among other procedures – a routine process for deportees returning to the country.
Two relatives of the ex-detainees told CNN they were still waiting for Venezuelan officials to hand them over to their families. One relative said her nephew could be handed over today. CNN has not had access to any of the released Venezuelans.
The migrants arrived at Simón Bolívar International Airport close to Caracas on two flights that departed from El Salvador, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said.
Families of the ex-detainees told CNN on Friday that they were excited about their return.
Mariyin Araujo, the wife of Jerce Reyes, said she was 'overjoyed.'
'My two daughters are super happy; they are really anxious and cannot wait to see their father,' she said on Friday.
Blanca Martínez, the partner of another former Venezuelan detainee, Miguel Ángel Rojas, told CNN she was thrilled that she would hear from him for the first time in four months.
'To think that we will be able to hear him … it excites me,' she said. 'I'm happy, happy for him, his son, his mom, his dad, his whole family.'
CNN's Osmary Hernández and Merlin Delcid contributed to this report.
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Heart-rending footage is emerging from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave bordering Israel, of emaciated infants; parents desperate to feed their families; and the squabbles breaking out over the meager food that is available. 'I don't know what you'd call it other than mass starvation. And it is man-made,' World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week. Prospects of any swift relief for Palestinian civilians suffered a serious blow on Thursday when the United States pulled its negotiators from talks in Qatar aimed at forging a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. US envoy Steve Witkoff blamed a lack of desire from Hamas — which triggered the war in Gaza with the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel — to reach a ceasefire. The situation in Israel and Gaza is deeply complex, marked by ill faith and extremism on both sides. Israel believes it is locked with Hamas in an existential struggle for the survival of its nation and of Jews more generally. The situation is exacerbated by Hamas' willingness to use its own Palestinian people as pawns. The Trump administration has shown little willingness to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to alleviate the horrific conditions despite an intense escalation in other international pressure on Israel. It has been more tolerant than the Biden administration — which came under heavy criticism from liberal Democrats — of the onslaught in Gaza. The Israeli offensive was launched after the October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people in Israel. Another 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas and taken back into Gaza. As of the beginning of this month, Israel said 49 hostages are still captive. Some 28 have been declared dead, but the status of several others is uncertain. A joint US-Israeli humanitarian aid initiative that involves the private sector — which the allies argue helps food reach civilians in need, rather than be stolen by Hamas — is facing intense international scrutiny. Critics say it sends far too little food into Gaza, and there have been multiple reports of Palestinians being killed as they desperately seek anything to eat. The United Nations says the system is a 'death trap.' Israel denies this. But the Gaza Health Ministry says more than 1,000 people have been killed since May. And the UN says most casualties occurred among people making their way to aid sites run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The State Department on Thursday responded to criticisms of the aid system and appeared to recognize the gravity of the crisis — while placing responsibility on Hamas. 'It is never enough in a war zone. It is never enough. 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As US allies demand a massive increase in aid going into Gaza, Israel says it is not to blame. 'In Gaza today there is no famine caused by Israel,' government spokesman David Mencer told reporters Wednesday. 'There is, however, a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas. … The suffering exists because Hamas has created it.' The Trump administration's lack of pressure on Israel despite the wrenching footage coming out of Gaza is more than raising questions about its highly controversial aid program. It risks looking like it doesn't really care that much. As CNN's Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler noted on Thursday, the administration lacks a high-level individual appointed to focus on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Biden administration maintained a special envoy who worked on Gaza issues and who was in direct contact with top Israeli officials. This is the kind of omission — in a world where the United States was once a galvanizing force on international crises — that is noticed everywhere and that sends clear political signals. But political negligence, failed peace talks, and the question of who is culpable for desperate scenes in Gaza mean nothing to mothers who can't feed their kids, or families who can't get even one inadequate meal per day. UNICEF said Thursday that malnutrition-related deaths are up 54% since April, citing Palestinian Health Ministry data. Political debate in the US on the Gaza issue is tortured and tends to bring out extreme responses. At the height of campus protests last year over Israel's response to the Hamas terror attacks, some demonstrations evinced alarming streaks of antisemitism. There have been multiple incidents of Jews falling victim to violence and intimidation. Two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed in an attack in Washington in May. Many of Netanyahu's US supporters rarely make a distinction between Hamas and Palestinian civilians and reject the idea that the US should impose its own pressure on the prime minister for humanitarian relief. The calamity exemplifies the failure of politics and diplomacy in a world in which international institutions are fracturing or losing influence. It's the result of the dearth of any meaningful Middle East peace process after years of increasingly right-wing Israeli government and the eclipse of any effective, moderate leadership for Palestinians. It's also a lesson in the consequences when the United States abandons its traditional global role and when 'America First' policies constrain the world's most powerful nation. The idea that America is a moral leader in the world, never embraced by Trump, is a harder sell than ever. The situation also raises the question of what level of humanitarian desolation the White House is prepared to accept before it leans harder on Netanyahu. In the past, President Donald Trump has been moved, on occasion, into action by footage of suffering children — for instance after a chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2017. There is no sign yet that he's reached a pivot point on Gazan hunger. Trump has said repeatedly he wants to end the war in Gaza — even if some of his suggestions, like the creation of a 'Riviera of the Middle East' in the enclave, are absurd and imply ethnic cleansing with the forced departure of Palestinians. The president's unwillingness to do more on Gaza amid hideous humanitarian scenes there have tarnished his aspirations to be a global peacemaker and to win the Nobel prize for which Netanyahu nominated him on a recent Oval Office visit. Netanyahu's hawkishness, against the backdrop of pressure from right-wing members of his coalition, also appears to be doing lasting damage to Trump's wider diplomatic aspirations in the region, including his hopes of expanding the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia. Israel — far from toning down its approach following US air attacks that appear to have significantly damaged Iran's nuclear program and its near-eradication of Tehran's regional proxies including Hezbollah — is becoming even more belligerent. This raises the possibility that what Netanyahu sees as the pursuit of Israel's national interests could eventually conflict with what Trump views as the vital national security interests of the United States. CNN's Kevin Liptak reported this week that Trump was caught by surprise by an Israeli strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza and by Israeli airstrikes against government buildings in the Syrian capital Damascus, and telephoned Netanyahu on both occasions. Trump took a significant political risk in pursuit of better humanitarian conditions for civilians in civil war-devastated Syria by conferring legitimacy on Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel commander, by meeting him in Saudi Arabia in May. Washington has so far resisted international pressure to force Netanyahu's hand as warnings of famine in Gaza mount. It did not sign on to a warning by the leaders of 25 Western nations this week that Israel was 'drip feeding' aid into the Gaza Strip. Washington has often adopted a more benevolent approach toward Israel and the Palestinian conflict than its Western allies. This has been the case even when past administrations have billed themselves as neutral brokers between the two sides during ultimately futile peace processes. But the current gulf on Middle East issues is stark. On Thursday, France reacted to the worsening situation in Gaza with a surprise announcement by President Emmanuel Macron that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state in September. Israel warned the move 'rewards terror' and risked its annihilation. Britain, another ally that has worked hard to retain good relations with Trump, also broke with the president on Thursday. Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that starvation in Gaza was 'unspeakable.' He added, 'We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.' As the pressure mounts, US diplomacy is foundering. Witkoff and Trump had repeatedly promised a deal was within reach. But as with Trump's buckled Ukraine peace effort, the US lacks the leverage and the capacity to push an agreement over the line. In both cases, it often seems that the administration doesn't even fully understand the issues. Witkoff said on X Thursday that the US will consider alternative options to bring Israeli hostages home and to try to create a more 'stable environment' for the people of Gaza. Israel has also withdrawn its negotiating team from the talks, although it is offering conflicting signals about whether the process is in crisis. Perhaps Witkoff's exit is a gambit to create leverage on Hamas as the situation worsens. But this is an organization that embeds its military assets in civilian areas, so it may be impervious to humanitarian leverage. Either way, time is running out for potentially hundreds of thousands of Gazans. Will a moment arrive when even Trump — as he flails over his own self-induced political mess over Epstein — feels he has no alternative but to act?