Voices of migrants deported to a Salvadoran prison

In March, President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to declare Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist group. Shortly after, the U.S. sent 238 Venezuelans who it said were part of the gang to El Salvador, where they were jailed for months in one of the country’s most notorious prisons, the Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT. Many of the men insist that they have no ties to the gang and were denied due process. After enduring months in detention, the men were sent home in July as part of a prisoner exchange deal that included Venezuela’s release of several detained Americans. Venezuela’s attorney general said interviews with the men revealed “systemic torture” in the Salvadoran prison, including daily beatings, rancid food and sexual abuse. The men have been readjusting to Venezuela, which most fled because of their home country’s political and economic instability. The Times photographed four of them — Arturo Suárez, Angelo Escalona, Frizgeralth Cornejo and Ángel Bolívar — as they got reacquainted with their families and life outside prison.

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