El Salvador's president denies that Kilmar Ábrego García was abused in notorious prison
Nayib Bukele said in a social media post that Ábrego García, the Salvadorian national who was wrongly extradited from the US to El Salvador in March before being returned in June, 'wasn't tortured, nor did he lose weight'.
Bukele showed pictures and video of Ábrego García in a detention cell, adding: 'If he'd been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?'
Ábrego García's lawyers said last week that he had suffered 'severe beatings', sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture while he was held in El Salvador's notorious anti-terrorism prison, Cecot.
Ábrego García said detainees at Cecot 'were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day and minimal access to sanitation'.
His lawyers say he lost 31 pounds during his first two weeks of confinement.
They said that, at one point, Ábrego García and four other inmates were transferred to a different part of the prison, 'where they were photographed with mattresses and better food – photos that appeared to be staged to document improved conditions'.
Bukele made no reference to whether the photos he showed to claim Ábrego García wasn't mistreated were taken in a nicer part of the prison.
Bukele recently struck a deal under which the US will pay about $6m for El Salvador to imprison members of what the US administration claims are members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, two gangs, for a year. According to Maryland senator Chris van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador to meet with Ábrego García while he was detained there, the Trump administration intends to provide up to $15m to El Salvador for the controversial detention service.
Bukele's remarks came as the Tennessee judge in Ábrego García's human-smuggling complaint ordered both sides to stop making public statements, after Ábrego García's legal team accused the government of attempting to smear him without evidence as a 'monster', 'terrorist' and 'barbarian'.
Lawyers for Ábrego García argued in a court filing that the government had violated a local rule barring comments that could be prejudicial to a fair trial.
'For months, the government has made extensive and inflammatory extrajudicial comments about Mr Ábrego that are likely to prejudice his right to a fair trial,' Ábrego García's lawyers said in a filing.
'These comments continued unabated – if anything they ramped up – since his indictment in this district, making clear the government's intent to engage in a 'trial by newspaper'.'
The US district judge Waverly Crenshaw issued the gag order in a two-sentence ruling.
Ábrego García's legal team has accused the government of trying to convict him in the court of public opinion since it acknowledged that it had mistakenly sent him to a prison in El Salvador despite a court order barring the move.
'As Mr Ábrego's plight captured national attention, officials occupying the highest positions of the United States government baselessly labeled him a 'gangbanger', 'monster', 'illegal predator', 'illegal alien terrorist', 'wife beater', 'barbarian' and 'human trafficker,'' the filing said.
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
after newsletter promotion
The attorneys singled out the vice-president, JD Vance, who they said had lied when he called Ábrego García a 'convicted MS-13 gang member'.
They also said that Trump administration officials had made 20 more public statements about their client when he was arraigned, including in remarks by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche.
They also said the attorney general, Pam Bondi, accused their client of crimes he hadn't been accused of, including links to a murder case. In sum, the statements had asserted Ábrego García's guilt 'without regard to the judicial process or the presumption of innocence', the filing said.
According to the documents filed on Wednesday, officials within the prison acknowledged that Ábrego García was not a gang member, and that his tattoos did not indicate a gang affiliation.
'Prison officials explicitly acknowledged that plaintiff Ábrego García's tattoos were not gang-related, telling him 'your tattoos are fine',' according to the filing, and they kept him in a cell separate from those accused of gang membership.
The prison officials, however, threatened to move Ábrego García into a cell with gang members whom officials said 'would 'tear' him apart'.
Separately, US prosecutors have agreed with a request by Ábrego García's lawyers to delay his release from Tennessee jail over fears that the Trump administration could move to deport the Salvadorian national a second time.
In a filing on Friday, lawyers for Ábrego García asked the judge overseeing a federal complaint that he was involved in human smuggling to delay his release because of 'contradictory statements' by the Trump's administration over whether he'll be deported upon release.
The justice department has said it plans to try the Maryland construction worker on the smuggling charges, but also that it plans to deport him but has not said when.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Coin Geek
5 hours ago
- Coin Geek
El Salvador approves investment banks holding digital assets
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... The El Salvador legislative assembly has approved a law that will let large financial institutions register as investment banks and offer financial services in digital assets to 'sophisticated investors.' The Investment Banking Law was approved on August 7 by El Salvador's Legislative Assembly members, with 55 out of 60 deputies voting in favor. The law distinguishes investment banks from commercial banks and allows financial institutions with at least $50 million in capital to qualify as investment banks. According to a legislative assembly press release, these investment banks can target so-called 'sophisticated investors,' individuals or entities with 'extensive knowledge, financial capacity, and experience in managing complex investments, with assets equal to or greater than $250,000 in liquid assets.' These liquid assets include treasury bonds, tokenized treasury bonds, tokenized gold, and digital assets such as Bitcoin. El Salvador has pitched itself as a 'crypto' haven ever since President Nayib Bukele came into office in 2021. The country already allows firms to register as Bitcoin service providers, digital asset service providers, or digital asset issuers, but the new regulation allows investment banks, once authorized by the competent authorities, to also act in those capacities. 'One of the main innovations introduced by the Investment Banking Law is the incorporation of operations with Bitcoin and digital assets into the regulatory framework of the Salvadoran financial system,' said the announcement. According to the legislative assembly, investment banks will be allowed to carry out active and passive operations, such as opening and maintaining current and term accounts, receiving deposits, and making payments through payment networks—in both fiat currency and digital assets. 'El Salvador will benefit in five strategic areas: first, the attraction of international private capital. This will allow investment funds and high-net-worth individuals to establish themselves in the country or use our entities as platforms for regional operations,' said legislative assembly deputy Dania González. 'Another benefit is the financing of the financial system, since the institutional architecture of the Salvadoran financial system will be expanded as a new, but regulated and supervised, entity, complementary to the traditional banking system we are all familiar with.' González emphasized that the regulatory framework will allow a deeper dive into the capital and digital asset markets, opening up secure and regular modern operations such as Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenized gold, and other digital instruments. Oversight and enforcement The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) and the Superintendency of the Financial System will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the new regulations. The government press release stated that the BCR must 'issue regulations defining capital, liquidity, and risk management requirements, establish criteria for asset valuation, regulate mechanisms for operating with digital assets, and determine the levels and use of the liquidity reserve required of these entities.' Meanwhile, the Superintendency will be charged with direct supervision of investment banks, including authorizing their creation, merger, or closure, and supervising their operations to ensure compliance with prudential laws and regulations. The two regulators will also update the minimum financial requirements for 'sophisticated investors' and qualifying entities every two years. Bukele's BTC paradise hasn't hit home The new law's focus on large companies and wealthy investors appears to make sense in the light of indications that President Bukele's attempt to foist BTC on the population has largely failed. In 2021, El Salvador passed a law designating BTC as a legal tender, requiring retailers to accept it as payment for goods and services. However, by 2024, BTC-based remittances accounted for just $28.8 million, barely 1%, of the total $2.64 billion remitted in the first four months of the year. By October 2024, a San Salvador University survey found that 92% of 1,224 respondents weren't using BTC to make transactions. The icing on the cake came in December 2024, when El Salvador was effectively forced to roll back on its BTC commitments by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as part of the organization's demands if it agreed to a US$1.4 loan for the country, which it eventually did in February 2025. The country has since halted using public funds to further stockpile BTC. Most recently, in July, one crypto advocate group expressed disappointment that El Salvador's BTC reserve has had limited impact on the population at large, and that the country's loan agreement with the IMF may further hamper its BTC goals. Thus, with the general population less than enthusiastic about digital currency and the IMF hamstringing government investment in the area, it appears Bukele has now turned to wealthy investors and financial institutions, in the hope that encouraging their investments in digital assets can keep his dream of a BTC utopia alive. Watch: Blockchain and banking title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""> Banks Dania González El Salvador Investment Banking Law Nayib Bukele Regulation
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Guatemalan judge finds six people guilty over deaths of 41 girls in 2017 fire
A Guatemalan judge has found six people guilty over the deaths of 41 girls in a raging 2017 fire at a state shelter for vulnerable youths that had a history of abuse. The sentencing is a step towards closure in one of the most horrific and deadly events in Guatemalan history. The tragedy drew international attention and highlighted pervasive abuse in the government's shelter system. The six sentenced on Tuesday – two former police officers and four former child protection officials – were found guilty of homicide, mistreatment of minors, breach of duties and abuse of authority. All pleaded not guilty. Judge Ingrid Cifuentes also ordered the investigation of former president Jimmy Morales for his role in ordering police to work at a facility where minors who had not committed crimes were held. Former social welfare secretary Carlos Rodas was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Earlier, Rodas told those gathered in the courtroom, including relatives of the victims, that he had not caused 'any harm to their daughters and the survivors'. Also among those convicted was ex-police officer Lucinda Marroquín, who held the key to the room where the girls were locked up and didn't open it when the fire started. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The judge said that through phone records, investigators were able to establish that at the time of the fire Marroquín was talking on her phone. The judge said a witness had testified that when told about the fire, Marroquín responded with profanity and said 'let them burn.' A former government prosecutor assigned to the protection of children was acquitted. The fire occurred on 8 March 2017, at the Virgin de la Asunción Safe Home outside Guatemala City, when 56 girls and teenagers were padlocked in a classroom allegedly for bad behavior. About 700 children – nobody knew exactly how many – lived in a home with a maximum capacity for 500. The majority had committed no crime. They were sent there by the courts for various reasons: they had run away, they were abused, they were migrants. The night before the fire, a group of girls had escaped. Hours later, the police returned them to the home. They were locked in a room that had no access to a bathroom and guarded by police. They were given foam mattresses to sleep on. After hours of demanding to be let out, one girl lit the fire. After spending hours locked inside, one of the girls lit a match to a mattress, thinking it might force police to let them out. Smoke and flames quickly filled the room, but despite cries for help, police refused to open the doors for nine minutes, witnesses said. Forty-one girls and teenagers died, and 15 more survived with serious burns. Cifuentes said that the fire was the culmination of a series of abuses, some of which had been reported to authorities but not acted on. She said autopsies confirmed the presence of drugs in some of the girls that supported their complaints that they were given sleeping pills that were among the reasons they had tried to escape the facility.
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Myanmar army detaining two-year-olds as proxies for parents, witnesses tell UN
Children as young as two years old have been detained by Myanmar's military, often as proxies for their parents, and held in prison facilities where there is systematic torture, UN investigators have warned. The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was set up to document and share evidence of abuse with national, regional and international courts, said in a report that the 'frequency and brutality' of atrocities inside the country had continued to escalate, more than four years after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021. The IIMM said it had collected evidence from witnesses indicating that children aged from two to 17 had been detained, often in lieu of their parents. The military and police may detain children in cases where parents who are perceived to be associated with opposition movements cannot be found to arrest. Some of the detained children had been subjected to torture, ill treatment or sexual and gender-based crimes, the report said. The military has conducted mass arrests since the coup, detaining almost 30,000 people, including political opponents, journalists and activists accused of resisting junta rule, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a local group that tracks arrests. The IIMM said it had gathered significant evidence that there was systematic torture inside prison facilities, including beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, torture by pulling out fingernails with pliers, and forms of sexual violence, including rape and gang-rape. Torture had resulted in death, the report said. Investigators had made progress in identifying specific members and units of security forces 'involved in operations at identified detention facilities', the report added, including direct perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes as well as high-level commanders. They had also gathered evidence of the identity of individuals – in the security forces and opposition armed groups – who had perpetrated summary executions, the IIMM report said. 'It's very important that perpetrators believe that somebody is watching, somebody is collecting evidence,' said Nicholas Koumjian, the head of IIMM, who said the conflict that had gripped Myanmar since the coup had become 'more and more violent'. It was crucial that there was 'commitment from the international community to see justice is done – not just for the people of Myanmar but as an example to the rest of the world also', said Koumjian. The IIMM report, based on the period July 2024 to June 2025, warned that an unprecedented funding crisis was threatening investigators' ability to collect and analyse evidence. It said funding constraints had affected the ability of investigators to travel, train and buy the necessary software to conduct their work. Staff positions would be reduced by 20% next year, it added. 'These financial pressures threaten the mechanism's ability to sustain its critical work and to continue supporting international and national justice efforts,' the report said. The UN is pursuing a cost-cutting drive, asking dozens of agencies, offices and operations to cut 20% of their staff, as it faces funding challenges. The IIMM is funded by the UN regular budget, as well as through grants from individual donor countries. Two US funding grants were terminated this year, though one continued, Koumjian said. The Trump administration has dismantled the US Agency for International Development, a major funder of humanitarian aid programmes around the world, and withdrawn from some UN agencies and ordered a broader review of US participation in the agencies. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has previously said efforts to cut back UN costs were due to a liquidity crisis, as member states were failing to pay their annual dues on time or in full. The IIMM has made more than two dozen requests to the Myanmar military, including for information relating to alleged crimes and for access to the country, but received no response. The military could not be reached by the Guardian for comment. It has previously denied atrocities have taken place and said its operations were in response to 'terrorists' who were causing unrest.
