Press Release
Published on July 24, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C – With the release and transfer to Venezuela of 252 Venezuelans from the CECOT in El Salvador, where they were tortured and abused after their forced disappearance from the United States, Human Rights First condemns the U.S. government for sending these people to torture in contravention of U.S. and international law and in violation of their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution, as well as the complicity of the U.S. government in returning people who sought U.S. asylum to their country of persecution. Human Rights First calls for accountability and justice for these men.
”Today, along with principled individuals everywhere who opposed the Trump administration’s scandalous and illegal conduct, we can breathe a sigh of relief that the whereabouts of these men are now known and that they are free of the horrific conditions under which they were arbitrarily detained in El Salvador,” said Human Rights First President and CEO Uzra Zeya. “But we will continue to demand justice and accountability for the harms that they suffered, freedom for those who remain unjustly jailed, and an end to the United States’ violations of its obligations not to return refugees to persecution or any human being to torture. Much work remains, but we proceed buoyed by the knowledge that there is power in our collective refusal to accept the unacceptable.”
Human Rights First assisted the families of several of the men who were disappeared to the CECOT, including Carlos Uzcategui, and campaigned for their release. We are deeply relieved that Carlos is reunited with his loved ones at this time. Human Rights First also made submissions to the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) on behalf of several of the Venezuelan nationals disappeared in El Salvador, which brought to light key evidence related to the continued control of the U.S. government over the fate of the men while held at the CECOT.
Carlos and the rest of the Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador were held for over four months in deplorable conditions. They had no contact with the outside world, with their attorneys, or loved ones. They report that they were beaten, subjected to sleep deprivation and other forms of physical, verbal, and psychological torture, including accounts of sexual abuse. It is imperative that the U.S. Congress and other international bodies conduct a thorough investigation into the treatment of these men and ensure accountability for the roles of the U.S. and Salvadoran authorities involved.
Human Rights First stands by Salvadoran human rights groups who have long called for the release of all those arbitrarily incarcerated in these abysmal conditions at the CECOT and in other Salvadoran prisons, such as the human rights lawyer Ruth Lopez.
The United States has committed in our laws and treaty obligations not to send anyone to a place where they would be tortured. The accounts of those released from the CECOT to Venezuela should stand as a stark warning to the U.S. public that the Trump administration is dangerously flouting our laws. If we do not hold to our democratic values we risk becoming that which we claim to oppose.
