The American Association of Jurists (AAJ) signed a complaint in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) against the situation of Venezuelans detained in the maximum security prison of El Salvador. According to the group of lawyers, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot) violates immigrants’ human rights that were arrested in the United States and were sent to the Salvadoran prison.
The document sent from the AAJ states that Donald Trump’s administration built a “false narrative criminalizing Venezuelan immigrants, most of them having left their native country for economic reasons, accusing and criminalizing them collectively without proof”.
Yet according to the jurists, the use of the ‘Alien Enemies Act’ to detain and deport Venezuelan migrants to a third country represents a “flagrant constitutional violation in the United States, established by the Fifth and Sixth Amendment, such as the “Miranda Rights” of Venezuelan citizens transported illegally in flights from the USA and El Salvador”. The Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution guarantees the right of no self-incrimination. And the Sixth Amendment assures the right of a fair trial, with the presence of a lawyer and judged by a jury. The so-called “Miranda Warning” or “Miranda Law” refers to the right to stay in silence and the right not to produce proof against oneself.
As the group indicated, these Venezuelans are being treated as “hostages in an interstate and unprecedented kidnap in the history of the United States”. The lawyers asked for measures against illegal deportations made by the White House by the Republic administration.
The association has already reported the expulsion of migrants from the USA to the Cecot. The center was opened on January 31st of 2023. According to the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, the penal institution was, at that moment, the biggest in Latin America with a capacity of 40 thousand prisoners. Today, the detention center has around 15 thousand people detained, among them 252 Venezuelans accused of being part of the criminal group Tren de Aragua.
For that, the government used the Alien Enemies Act, from 1798. The legislation establishes that any person in the country and is considered a part of a terrorist organization is susceptible to be deported as a “foreign enemy” These citizens, however, need to be more than 14 years old and can’t be naturalized or permanent residents in the USA.
To be considered a maximum security prison, the Cecot also became a business to El Salvador. First because the Salvadoran government receives 20 thousand dollars for each deported person received by the USA. Only for the 252 Venezuelans, the USA will pay US$ 6 million a year. Bukele intends to expand the prison to receive more deported from the United States.
According to the Wall Street Journal, El Salvador’s President met with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to discuss expanding Cecot prison, the only non-overcrowded prison in the country. Since 2019, the president has adopted a policy of mass incarceration, detaining over 85,000 people.
These measures are questioned by international organizations, with a current prison population of 115,605, or 1,824 prisoners per 100,000 residents. Cecot, a maximum-security center, has 19 surveillance towers and thousands of workers. Its construction costs were hidden due to the Special Law for the Construction of Penitentiary Centers.
Cells hold 100 people in metal bunk beds without mattresses, while “punishment cells” lack light and ventilation. Prisoners have limited exercise, constant light, and no open air, visits, or calls. The UN Committee Against Torture has warned of potential torture at Cecot. The Association of American Jurists (AAJ), founded in 1975, advocates for self-determination and state sovereignty in Latin America.
