(Mexico) The president of Salvador, Nayib Bukele, denied the allegations on Thursday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was beaten and subjected to psychological tortures in a Salvadoral prison.
In a publication on the social network X, the Salvadoral President wrote that Mr. Abrego Garcia “was not tortured and has not lost weight”. In his publication, Mr. Bukele included photos and a video by Mr. Abrego Garcia in a detention cell.
If he was tortured, deprived of sleep and hungry, why is it so beautiful in all the photos?
Nayib Bukele, president of Salvador
These words follow the statements of Mr. Abrego Garcia, who claims to have suffered violent tobacco passages, a significant sleep deprivation and psychological torture during his stay at the Center for the Terrorism of Terrorism in Salvador (CECOC), according to legal documents filed on Wednesday. In March, the Trump administration expelled it in this notorious prison by mistake.
Photo provided by the Abrego Garcia family, Reuters archives
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
He said he was kicked and struck so often after his arrival that the next day he presented bruises and bumps visible all over the body. He added that he and 20 other people had been forced to stay on his knees overnight and that the guards hit anyone who fell.
In the new court documents, Mr. Abrego Garcia said that CECOT prisoners “were confined in metal berths without mattresses, in a overcrowded cell, without windows, with lively light light lights and minimal access to sanitary facilities”.
The description given by the detainee agrees with the testimonies of other Salvadorians locked up under the state of emergency on the gangs declared by Mr. Bukele. The government has imprisoned more than 1 % of the population of this Central American country as part of its war against gangs.
Hundreds of people died in these prisons, according to human rights groups, who have also documented cases of torture and degradation of the conditions of detention.
Mr. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland when he was expelled. His case has become a sensitive point in the migratory repression of US President Donald Trump. The new details of his incarceration in Salvador were added to a complaint against the Trump administration filed by his wife before a federal court in Maryland after his expulsion.
The Trump administration asked a Maryland federal judge to reject the complaint, arguing that it is now without object, because the government has dismissed it to the United States as ordered by the court.
