Migrants from Venezuela detained at an El Salvador prison open up about the abuse they endured
Times staff writer Kate Linthicum and special correspondent Mery Mogollón spoke to Jerce Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old former professional soccer player, who left Venezuela last year and tried to apply for asylum at the Otay Mesa border crossing in California. He was among the more than 250 men accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua street gang and sent to CECOT by the Trump administration in March.
Reyes Barrios denies ever belonging to the criminal organization. His attorney, Linette Tobin, said in a court statement that her client was accused of being a gang member because of an arm tattoo that featured a soccer ball decorated with a crown — a nod to Spanish club Real Madrid CF.
He says the maltreatment began the moment they were removed from the plane.
'Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of bitches,' Reyes Barrios claims the prison guards told them. 'You've arrived at the Terrorist Confinement Center. Hell on earth.'
Inside, Reyes Barrios said the men were constantly beaten. They were kept in overcrowded cells and slept on metal beds. They were hardly fed, were given contaminated water and were supervised by a sadistic staff.
'There was blood, vomit and people passed out on the floor,' he said.
Reyes Barrios' account of what he experienced at CECOT is consistent with what other former detainees have described.
'The doctor would watch us get beaten and then ask us 'How are you feeling?' with a smile,' Marco Jesús Basulto Salinas, a 35-year-old kitchen worker who had temporary protected status, told the Washington Post. 'It was the most perverse form of humiliation.'
Some of the worst abuse took place at a cell dubbed 'La Isla.' It was there where Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old hairdresser who left Venezuela out of fear of being persecuted for being gay, says he was sexually assaulted.
Conditions inside CECOT were so bad that some detainees attempted suicide, while others contemplated it.
'I'd rather die or kill myself than to keep living through this experience,' 39-year-old Juan José Ramos Ramos told ProPublica. 'Being woken up every day at 4 a.m. to be insulted and beaten. For wanting to shower, for asking for something so basic. ... Hearing your brothers getting beaten, crying for help.'
At one point, the men staged a hunger strike. When that didn't work, some of them cut themselves and wrote messages on sheets and in the walls using their own blood.
'We wanted them to see we were willing to die,' Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel, another former detainee, told the Post.
After nearly four months of alleged abuse, the men were told that they were finally going home. Their release was part of a prison exchange deal— Venezuela agreed to free 10 jailed Americans.
'At that moment, we all shouted with joy,' Reyes Barrios said. 'I think that was my only happy day at CECOT.'
The Times reached out to a spokesperson for Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, seeking comment, but did not get a reply. For its part, the Trump administration is refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing.
'Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Washington Post. 'We hear far too much about gang members and criminals' false sob stories and not enough about their victims.'
According to internal data obtained by ProPublica, the Trump administration knew that nearly 200 of the men sent to CECOT had not been convicted of crimes in the U.S.
If you're looking for something to do this weekend that's both fun and free, come join the De Los team at 350 S. Grand Ave. on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., as we co-present a Grand Performances concert headlined by Adrian Quesada.
The multi-instrumentalist will be performing songs from 'Boleros Psicodélicos,' a duo of albums released in 2022 and 2025 that takes boleros — love ballads popular across Latin America — and injects them with a healthy dose of psychedelia. Every track on both records features a different singer, so performing 'Boleros Psicodélicos' live is logistically difficult given Quesada's lengthy list of collaborators. Joining him onstage on Saturday will be Gaby Moreno, Trish Toledo, Angélica Garcia, Mireya Ramos and one or two surprise guests. El Marchante and Explorare will kick the night off.
The De Los team will have a booth at the event, where we'll be giving out free posters and copies of our 'De Los 101' zine for subscribers of the Latinx Files. We will also be raffling off tote bags!
You can RSVP here.
Starting Monday, I'll be going on paternity leave for two months. But fret not, for I leave you in the very capable hands of De Los writer Carlos De Loera — next week will not be his first rodeo.
Working on this newsletter has been one of the most fulfilling professional experiences I've had, and while I'll miss it, I'm very much looking forward to having quality baby bonding time. I'll return in time to write the Oct. 10 edition of the Latinx Files.
Unless otherwise noted, all stories in this section are from the L.A. Times.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Texas Democrats flee state amid heated redistricting battle. Has this happened before?
WASHINGTON - A president jumping out of a window, a senator carried feet-first from their office, and state legislators moving into an out-of-state hotel: For as long as Americans have been legislating, they've been fleeing from legislatures to prevent votes from happening. Texas House Democrats fled the Lone Star State on Aug. 3 in an attempt to block a redistricting that would give Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives up to five more seats in the 2026 midterms. The Democrats dispersed to friendly blue states: Many traveled to the Chicago area in Illinois, greeted by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, while other groups landed in Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to expel any Democrat who was not back in Austin by the time the legislature reconvened Aug. 4 at 3 p.m. CT. Republicans need what is called a quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed to be present on the floor to carry out business. But the tactic of fleeing to deny quorum is one that's been used by both parties since the 1800s. Some lawmakers have hid out in their offices, while others have fled their state to avoid being compelled to show up to vote, as is the case with Texas Democrats. These are some of the most prominent examples from history. 1840: Abraham Lincoln jumps out of a first-floor window Before Abraham Lincoln served as president, he was a member of the Illinois state legislature from 1834 to 1842. He once jumped out of a first-floor window to try to prevent a quorum on a vote to shut down a state-run bank in 1840, according to The New York Times. Lincoln, a member of the Whig Party at the time, was an advocate of the state-run bank while his Democratic colleagues were not, the Times reported. Samuel Wheeler, who is the llinois state historian, told the Times that Lincoln had already been marked present for the quorum, making his effort pointless. 'It's not an episode that he's very proud of later,' Wheeler said. 1988: Bob Packwood carried into the chamber Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, a Republican, tried to avoid a quorum call in February 1988 amid opposition to a Democratic-driven campaign finance reform bill, according to the U.S. Senate. He hid in his office until Capitol police later found him. The New York Times reported that Packwood had placed a chair against one door to prevent the officers from forcing it open. 'It was their mass against my mass,' he said at the time. The officers entered Packwood's office through another door, and they 'transported him feet-first into the Chamber,' the U.S. Senate website says. 2003: Texas Democrats protest redistricting effort Texas Democrats fled the state in 2003 to break quorum over Republican redistricting efforts. House Democrats went to Oklahoma until the regular session of the legislature ended, the Texas Tribune reported. Eleven Democratic state senators went to New Mexico after former Gov. Rick Perry called a special session, according to the Tribune. Then Democratic Sen. John Whitmire returned to Texas, officially allowing Republicans to advance with their redistricting plans after reaching a quorum. 2011: Wisconsin Democrats challenge anti-union bill Wisconsin Democrats fled their state in February 2011 in an attempt to block a budget-repair bill that would curtail collective bargaining rights from public employee unions, though the bill still ended up passing, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The lawmakers went to Illinois, but stayed at different places due to security concerns. When they returned in March, nearly 70,000 trade union and Democratic supporters greeted them at Capitol Square, according to The Guardian. 2011: Indiana Democrats flee to Comfort Suites in Illinois Indiana Democrats fled their state 14 years ago to halt legislative business and challenge the passage of a controversial anti-union legislation, The Daily Illini reported. They headed to the Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Illinois, on Feb. 22 that year and didn't return to their home state until March 28, the paper reported. Their bill total came out to be over $84,000 dollars. 'It was a very difficult decision - very difficult - and it got more difficult every day,' State Representative Ed DeLaney, who fled with his colleagues, told The New York Times in an interview. 'You only have so much ammunition, and this is a way to spend an awful lot of your ammunition on one point, and draw a lot of criticism in the process.' Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
Former NYT staffer blasts Gray Lady for ‘twisting' facts about Israeli hostage digging own grave
A former New York Times staffer on Monday slammed the Gray Lady for 'twisting' the facts about how it framed a story about an emaciated Israeli hostage being forced to dig his own grave. The liberal broadsheet — which was forced to amend a front-page article featuring an image of a supposedly starving child in Gaza — published a video on Saturday about Israeli Evyatar David being held by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023, without using the horrific photo of his skeletal frame. The video ran with the headline, 'Hundreds Protest in Tel Aviv After Hostage Videos Surface From Gaza,' and claimed, 'The circulation of videos created by Hamas showing Israeli hostages living in dire conditions incited families to protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a cease-fire and the return of their loved ones.' Advertisement 5 Yaakov Ort slammed his former employer, The New York Times on Facebook, calling out the newspaper's slanted coverage. Yaakov Ort/Facebook Yaakov Ort, who spent 35 years at the Times working in its creative services division, ripped his former employer over the false premise that the majority of Israelis were protesting to demand a cease-fire. 'This is an appalling twisting of the facts, and mindful, heartless concealment of the truth: Rather than running a photo of hostage Evyatar David being forced to dig his own grave by Hamas terrorists, and writing about the actual reaction of million of Israelis to seeing it, the foreign desk and photo desk ran a photo of a relative handful of protestors in Tel Aviv,' Ort wrote on his Facebook page. Advertisement Ort, who is now a senior editor at said that he has never publicly chastised his former colleagues but was aghast at the editiorial decision. 'If The Times had a Jerusalem bureau that reported the thoughts, communications and actions of the vast majority of Israelis, they would have told readers that the reaction of millions to this and other photos and videos of the physical and psychological torture of our children is not fear or protest, It is horror, rage and resolve,' he wrote 'The symbolism of the photo is so apt, since digging our own graves is exactly what the current Times news, editorial and op-ed page writers and editors, and those justifiably fearful of the Islamic street in the the West are arguing daily that we should do. Guess what? We won't.' Advertisement 5 Evyatar David was abducted on Oct. 7 at the Nova rave in southern Israel. The Times did not respond to requests for comment. David, 24, was abducted in one of the bloodiest scenes of Oct. 7. at the Nova rave in southern Israel, where more than 350 people were massacred by Hamas terrorists. David's family said in a statement to The Times that he had become a 'living skeleton, buried alive' in Hamas tunnels. Ort's outrage comes after the Times amended a story it had published containing a shocking image of a child purportedly suffering from starvation in Gaza. Advertisement In an editor's note buried in last Tuesday's edition, readers learned Mohammed Zakaria al Mutawaq — the Gazan boy 'diagnosed with severe malnutrition' and pictured in the article — suffers from 'pre-existing health problems.' 5 David has beeb held by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023. He recently appeared in a harrowing video by Hamas. Al-Qassam Brigade Footage 'We recently ran a story about Gaza's most vulnerable civilians, including Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, who is about 18 months old and suffers from severe malnutrition,' a spokesperson for the outlet said in a statement. 'We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems,' the rep continued. 'This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his situation.' 5 The New York Times has been under fire for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. NurPhoto via Getty Images The image of Mohammed — shown with a gaunt face and his spine protruding from his back as his mother held him — went viral, with many using him as the poster child for starvation in the Palestinian enclave amid Israel's war against Hamas. Advertisement Days after The Times published images of Mohammed, pro-Israel group HonestReporting noted on July 27 that the boy's older brother, Joud, is standing in the background, appearing in far better condition. Mohammed's mother told CNN that her son suffers from a 'muscle disorder' for which he receives specialized nutrition and physical therapy.
Politico
7 hours ago
- Politico
Rwanda agrees to take up to 250 migrant deportees
Rwanda took the action in part to strengthen relations with the U.S., according to a second Rwandan official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic relations. 'When you're a small country, any time you can find a way consistent with your own policies and values, to be able to talk to a major country about something that it is interested in and not just asking them to take an interest in your issues, it just creates a more productive, obviously not equal, but a more balanced relationship and that's good for both sides,' the official said. The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department has already sent Kigali a list of people it wants to send in the first tranche. Rwanda expects to receive the first 10 deportees soon and will accept deportees in small groups, the second Rwandan official said. The nationality of the deportees was not immediately clear. The administration has asked at least 15 African countries, including Eswatini and South Sudan, to accept migrants who cannot return to their home countries as part of its sweeping immigration strategy. The U.S. will provide money to support these efforts, according to the second Rwandan official, who declined to say how much. El Salvador received $6 million to incarcerate Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals. Rwanda, unlike El Salvador, will not be imprisoning anyone. The funds from the U.S. to Kigali will support extra work by Rwandan immigration authorities and the training programs. Reuters previously reported that Rwanda had agreed to accept the migrants but did not provide details about the payment from the U.S. or the Rwandan government's motivations. Per the terms of the memorandum of understanding agreed between the U.S. and Rwanda, Rwanda can approve each person who will arrive and will offer additional support.
