Deported Venezuelan Says Guantanamo Cell Was Filled With Cobwebs and Ants

As President Donald Trump continues carrying out his mass deportation plans, more and more testimonies are coming out of the harsh conditions detainees experience at the newly opened detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

As reported by The Latin Times, three Venezuelan detainees who spent 14 days at the infamous naval base described living in shackles and inside cages. And according to the testimony of another young Venezuelan, inhumane conditions at the facility left him traumatized. According to Kevin Rodríguez, detainees were taken out, in handcuffs, to shower every three days and that they were searched before and after every shower. He claims that cobwebs and ants inside the cell gave the sense that the place had long been unoccupied.

"You could really see that no one had been there in a long time. They didn't even clean them," Rodríguez told Telemundo.

Rodríguez, 22, was one of 178 Venezuelan undocumented immigrants sent to Guantanamo after Trump's order to use the detention camp to speed up his mass deportation plans.

Rodríguez said the conditions he experienced at the military prison during his two-week stay were traumatizing. "I really don't think I'll leave my country again," he said, "because I was really traumatized by everything that happened.

The worst part, according to Rodríguez, was the uncertainty of not knowing how long he was going to be in the Guantanamo Bay detention center. "That was what worried me the most, how long I was going to be there, how long my family was going to be without news of me," he said.

During his 14-day imprisonment, he lost 9 pounds after he was provided with very little food, adding that the last meal of the day was served at 4 p.m. "And then by 7, 8, 9 p.m., we were very hungry."

Initially, the Trump administration said Guantanamo would be reserved for the "worst of the worst," but court filings reveal that not all those who were sent to the facility were considered to pose a "high threat," CNN reported.

Of the Guantanamo deportees, 126 people had criminal charges or convictions—including 80 allegedly affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua—a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said. However, 51 detainees had no criminal record.

Although he was not part of the Tren de Aragua gang, Rodríguez was handed over to immigration authorities after being arrested in El Paso, Texas, following an altercation with his girlfriend in 2024. He told Telemundo that there were people "who didn't even have tattoos, people who really weren't linked to any gang."

As more deportees continue to speak out of the conditions at Guantanamo, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is one of many organizations that have sued the Trump administration to allow legal access to the migrants.

"Conditions at Guantanamo are horrific and far more restrictive, more severe and more abusive than what we would see in a typical immigration detention facility in the United States," said Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU National Prison Project.

Faced with lawsuits, the Trump administration halted efforts to place migrants in tent structures built at Guantanamo Bay amid concerns that the facility does not meet detention standards due to the lack of air conditioning, electricity and other issues described by detainees.

According to a CNN report, there are no migrants currently being housed at the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) and no flights with more migrants are expected over the next few days.

A U.S. official told CNN on Feb. 24 that there is a cap of 50 for how many migrants can be brought to the detention center to avoid overcrowding.

"Depending on how many people we get, they may be trickled down to the tents, but at this moment we haven't reached that threshold to put people in tents," one of the officials said.