Mervin José Yamarte Fernández believed that he had arrived in Venezuela when he looked out the window of his deportation plane. After reading a sign that said “San Salvador”, he heard shouts.
“We cling to the seats, we didn’t want to let it go,” he told ABC News in Spanish.
Yamarte Fernández, who was one of the more than 250 deported Venezuelan migrants from the United States to the famous Cecot prison in El Salvador in March, is one of the three Venezuelans who reported what they say was their experience in CECOT to ABC News.
The Trump administration invoked the Alien enemies law, a war authority of the eighteenth century used to eliminate non -citizens with little or not due process, to deport the alleged gang member arguing that the Venezuelan gang of Aragua Train is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Subsequently, Venezuelans were released to their country of origin in an exchange of prisoners last week.
Yamarte Fernández and his two compatriots, talking to ABC News from Venezuela, claim that they were beaten and denied access to lawyers while they were arrested in Cecot. Negan be members of Aragua.
The alleged beatings began as soon as Venezuelans arrived in El Salvador, said Yamarte Fernández. The men, who were handcuffed and chains, were immediately removed from the plane and taken to Cecot, where they say they were kicked, beaten and shaved.
Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan Gang Train of Aragua recently deported by the United States government to be imprisoned in the prison of the Terrorism Confinement Center, in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, obtained on March 16, 2025.
Press Secretary of the Presidency Via Reuters
“You’re going to see the real hell,” said Yamarte Fernández a CECOT officer told him.
The Venezuelan told ABC News that they were forced to change clothes in front of CECOT officers who continued to overcome them.
“They didn’t let us dress,” said Yamarte Fernández. “If you tried to put the boxers, they would hit you with a stick in your private parts. If you shout, they would tell you to shut up.”
“We had bruises everywhere,” he said. “We didn’t know what to do.”
Yamarte Fernández said it was initially placed in a cell with 10 people, but then transferred to a cell with about 80 men.
“We were all narrow together, governing,” he said.
Similarly, Francisco García Casique told ABC News that he experienced physical and psychological abuse in prison. He said that CECOT officers told men that they would never leave the prison and “not even the Pope or [Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro] I could rescue them. “
Sometimes, García Casique said, he and the other men could not drink water because their bodies had “received such beating.” He denies the accusations of being a member of the Train of Aragua and said he does not know why he was sent to Cecot.
“They linked me with a gang, but they never showed me any crimes that showed that I was a criminal, you know?” García Casique said. “I never thought I would end in a terrorist prison.”
He told ABC News that he worked as a barber in the United States and dreamed of supporting his family in Venezuela.
Ysqueibel Penaloza told ABC News that he believes that the United States kidnapped him when he was sent to Cecot and prevented him from making phone calls or seeing a judge.
“It was beaten after blow. Both abuse, both physical and psychological,” he said. “They cut our hair when we arrived at the center, they humbled us completely making us undress in front of many people to change.”
Penaloza said that when there were visitors, CECOT officers would temporarily give them mattresses, pillows and give them a better meal.
Last Monday, Penaloza and Yamarte Fernández said that prison officers began sending doctors and nutritionists to see Venezuelan men. They say they were given soap, shampoo and toothpaste, and they cut their hair for the first time since they arrived.
On July 18, the men say that prison officers provided him with clothes and told them that they were leaving.
“We sing and shout and thank God,” said Yamarte Fernández.
In a statement to ABC News, the assistant secretary of the DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said the agency sent men to Cecot “where they no longer represent a threat to the American people.”
“Train of Aragua and MS-13 are some of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet Earth,” McLaughlin said. “They violate, mutilate and murder for the sport. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrify US citizens.”
DHS did not comment on the accusations of abuse.
Penaloza and García Casique told ABC News that they would never return to the United States
“They treated me as a criminal, like a terrorist, tarnished my image,” said García Casique. “They made fun of me. I want to be here with my family in my homeland.”
Yamarte Fernández told ABC News that he would return to the United States, but not under the Trump administration.
“I have so many dreams and so many things that I left behind,” he said. “I am the one who takes care of my family. And the [U.S.] It helps you have everything. “
