“Hell on earth. A Venezuelan deportee describes the abuses of El Salvador prison

Caracas, Venezuela – When Jerce Reyes Barrios and other Venezuelan deportees entered a maximum security prison in El Salvador in the spring, he said that the guards had greeted them with taunts.

“Welcome to El Salvador, you son of female dogs,” said Reyes Barrios. “You arrived at the terrorist containment center. Hell on earth. “

What followed, said Reyes Barrios are the darkest months of his life. Reyes Barrios said he was regularly beaten on his neck, coast and head. He and other prisoners received little food and forced to drink contaminated water. They slept on metal beds without mattresses in overcrowded cells, listening to the cries of other prisoners.

“There was blood, vomit and people vanish on the ground,” he said.

Reyes Barrios, 36, was one of the more than 250 Venezuelans sent to the Salvador of the United States in March after President Trump invoked the Extraterrestrial Enemies Act from 1798 to expel the alleged members of the Gang Tren of Aragua without normal immigration procedures. Many men, including Reyes Barrios, insist that they have no connection with the gang and were refused a regular procedure.

After having endured months in detention in Salvador, they were sent home last week as part of a prisoner exchange agreement which included the liberation by Venezuela of several detained Americans.

The Attorney General of Venezuela said that interviews with men had revealed “systemic torture” inside the Salvadoral prison, including daily blows, rancid food and sexual abuse.

One of the former detainees, Neiyerver Adrián León Songgel, made a complaint on Thursday with the Department of Internal Security, accusing the United States of withdrawing it without regular procedure and of requesting $ 1.3 million in damages.

Reyes Barrios spoke to Times above the video Thursday after his return to his hometown of Machiques, a city of 140,000 not far from the Colombian border. He was delighted to be gathered with his mother, wife and children. But he said he was haunted by his experience in prison.

Reyes Barrios, a professional football player on time, left Venezuela last year in the middle of political disorders and looking for economic opportunities. He entered the United States on September 1 at the Otay Mesa border post in California as part of the asylum program known as CBP One. He was immediately detained, accused of being a gangster and was put into police immigration and customs application.

A statement in court earlier this year of his lawyer, Linette Tobin, said that the authorities had linked Reyes Barrios to Tren from Aragua only on the basis of an arm tattoo and a social media position in which he made a gesture of the hand that the American authorities interpreted as a gang sign.

The tattoo – a crown seated at the top of a football ball, with a rosary and the word “Deceased“Or” God “- is actually a tribute to his favorite team, Real Madrid, wrote Tobin. She said that the gesture of the hand was sign language for” I love you. “”

In detention in California, Reyes Barrios asked for political asylum and other help. A hearing had been set for April 17, but on March 15, it was expelled in Salvador “without advice or family notice,” wrote Tobin. Reyes Barrios “has never been arrested or accused of a crime,” added Tobin. “He has a constant job record as a football player as well as as a football coach for children and young people.”

The surprise expulsion of Reyes Barrios and other Venezuelans in El Salvador attracted human rights defenders and stimulated a legal battle with the Trump administration.

The detainees kneel on the ground at the terrorism confinement center on March 16, 2025 in Tecoleca, El Salvador.

(Salvadoral government)

Reyes Barrios was not aware of the controversy on deportations because he was handcuffed from San Salvador airport to the sadly famous center for the country’s terrorism, also known as Cecot.

There, Reyes Barrios said that he and other detainees had been forced to kneel while their heads were shaved and were beaten several times. He said he had been placed in a cell with 21 other men – all Venezuelans. The guards inflicted skinny parts of beans and tortillas and told detainees that they “would never eat chicken or meat”.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, arrested tens of thousands of his compatriots in Cecot and in other prisons in recent years, part of a gang repression which, according to human rights defenders, trapped thousands of innocent people.

Bukele drew the attention of the world and the praise of American Republicans after having published dramatic photos and videos showing hundreds of prisoners piled up in humiliating positions, only carrying underwear and channels. During a meeting with Bukele at the Oval Office this year, Trump said he was interested in sending “cultivators” – that is to say American prisoners – to El Salvador’s prisons.

President Trump meets Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, at the Oval office on April 14, 2025.

(Washington Post)

A Bukele spokesperson did not respond to requests for comments on Thursday.

Reyes Barrios said the guards told him and the other Venezuelans detained that they would spend the rest of their lives in the prison.

Reyes Barrios said he started to pray at night: “God protects my mother and children. I dispute my soul to you because I think I’m going to die.”

Then, several days ago, he and the other prisoners were awakened, shouting early in the morning. The guards told them that they had 20 minutes to take showers and prepare to leave.

“At that moment, we all shouted with joy,” said Reyes Barrios. “I think it was my only happy day in Cecot.”

After arriving in Venezuela, Reyes Barrios and the other repatriated spent days in police custody, undergoing medical checks and interviews with officials.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was presented at the presidential palace on February 20, 2024.

(Ariana Cubillos / Associated Press)

The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, seized the treatment of prisoners, broadcasting videos on state television in which some deportees describe suffering abuses, including rape, blows and fire with pellet cannons. The Venezuelan authorities say they investigate Bukele for alleged abuses.

Maduro, an authoritarian on the left who has governed Venezuela since 2013, has maintained his grip on power by imprisonment – and sometimes torture – adversaries. Many of the 7.7 million Venezuelans who have fled the country in recent years have cited political repression as a reason to leave.

In the declaration of the Tobin court, she said that Reyes Barrios participated in two demonstrations against Maduro in early 2024. After the second, Reyes Barrios was detained by the authorities as well as other demonstrators and tortured, she wrote.

Reyes Barrios said he did not want to discuss Venezuelan policy. He said he was just grateful to be back with his family.

“My mother is very happy,” he said.

He was welcomed in his hometown by some of the young football players whom he once trained. They wore their uniforms and held balloons. Reyes Barrios juggled a bit of a bullet, gave cuddles to the children and High Fives, and smiled.

Linthicum reported to Mexico City and Mogollón, a special correspondent, of Caracas. The staff editor Patrick J. McDonnell contributed from Mexico City.