The president of El Salvador is refuting allegations made by Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the person whose mistaken deportation by the Trump administration has fueled a monthslong authorized saga — through which he mentioned he was overwhelmed and topic to psychological torture whereas in jail within the Central American nation.
President Nayib Bukele, in a put up on the social media platform X, wrote that Abrego Garcia “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight.” He included photos and video of Abrego Garcia in a detention cell at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Middle, or CECOT, earlier this 12 months.
“If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?” Bukele wrote.
Sen. Van Hollen, proper, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a lodge restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, April 17, 2025.
Press Workplace Senator Van Hollen, through AP
This week, Abrego Garcia alleged in a brand new authorized submitting that he confronted “psychological torture” and “severe beatings” after he was despatched to the infamous supermax jail the Trump administration had mistakenly deported him to in March.
Within the court docket paperwork filed Wednesday, Abrego Garcia mentioned he was kicked and hit so typically after his arrival that by the next day, he had seen bruises and lumps throughout his physique. He mentioned he and 20 others have been compelled to kneel all night time lengthy and guards hit anybody who fell.
Abrego Garcia’s legal professionals have beforehand described his greater than three-week stint at CECOT as “torture.”
Within the new court docket paperwork, Abrego Garcia mentioned 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.”
After greater than three weeks, Abrego Garcia alleged he was transferred to a special space and was “photographed with mattresses and better food” in what he believed to be staged pictures.
Abrego Garcia’s description falls consistent with accounts from different Salvadorans who have been detained underneath Bukele’s state of emergency, the place the federal government has detained greater than 1% of the Central American nation’s inhabitants in its warfare on the nation’s gangs.
A whole lot of individuals have died within the prisons, in accordance with human rights teams, which have additionally documented instances of torture and deteriorated situations.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran nationwide, was residing in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and have become a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown. He was flown again to the U.S. in early June — months after a Maryland decide ordered his return — and promptly charged with human smuggling in Tennessee.
The brand new particulars of Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador have been added to a lawsuit towards the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia’s spouse filed in Maryland federal court docket after he was deported.
The Trump administration has requested a federal decide in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it’s now moot as a result of the federal government returned him to the USA as ordered by the court docket.
Extra from CBS Information
