According to NBC News, three deportees from Venezuela who were taken by the Trump administration to the infamous prison in El Salvador have claimed to have been tortured, and one of them has even claimed to have been sexually abused.
The guys reportedly suffered beatings that left them with cuts and bruises during their four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. They were also allegedly refused access to restrooms and food, and they were subjected to psychological abuse.
Many of the men, along with their families and lawyers, have denied the Trump administration’s claims that they were part of the Tren de Aragua gang, which led to the deportation of some 250 Venezuelan men to CECOT in March. The majority of the Venezuelans detained at CECOT were recently released in a prisoner swap.
As part of a prisoner swap with the United States, the three prisoners who spoke to NBC News were freed and transported to Venezuela on July 18. Andry Hernandez Romero, 32, is a Venezuelan LGBT asylum claimant. Staff members “made me kneel, performed oral sex on one person, while the others groped me and touched my private parts” and “stroked me with their batons,” he claimed the network, when he was placed in solitary confinement while he was at CECOT.
He also mentioned that the guards were wearing masks and that the sole source of artificial light in the room was a hole in the ceiling. “I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do absolutely anything,” he told NBC News. “The only thing I did was stay laying down, look at the toilet, remember my family, asking myself a million questions.”
Hernandez also out that detainees frequently ended up getting pummeled by guards if they tried to protest about mistreatment. While the CECOT director told CNN that “the whole operation is based on strict respect for human rights,” the Salvadoran government has previously stated that it adheres to safety and order norms.
Three of the 250 Venezuelans who were held in El Salvador’s CECOT prison after bring deported from the U.S. say they were beaten and denied access to lawyers.
Read more: https://t.co/AjrWR0IM3M pic.twitter.com/mIAPxQoBm2
— ABC News (@ABC) July 25, 2025
The guys were “not U.S. citizens or under U.S. jurisdiction,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told NBC News, referring to the Salvadoran government for comment. When asked if the United States would keep sending people to CECOT, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that “these dangerous criminals will not be allowed to terrorize U.S. citizens whether it is CECOT, Alligator Alcatraz, Guantanamo Bay, or another detention facility.”
Venezuelans deported to notorious El Salvador prison say they were beaten, sexually assaulted https://t.co/raBZQnthS5
— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) July 28, 2025
President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “are using every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country,” McLaughlin said. A few days ago, Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel was apprehended outside his apartment in Texas. Two days later, he was sent to CECOT. In his complaint to DHS, he claimed to have “endured physical, verbal, and psychological abuse,” including frequent beatings by guards with batons and fists.
After more than 250 Venezuelans were released from the prison as part of the prisoner swap, this is the first lawsuit against the Trump administration. Rengel is requesting $1.3 million in damages, citing claims of bodily injury and unjust incarceration. The first step in a lawsuit is the claim.
