Families Of Venezuelan Deportees Deny Gang Ties Fearing For Their Fate At El Salvador's Infamous Mega-Prison

The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act over the weekend, allowing for the swift deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador.

The Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), built under Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele's, is considered the largest prison in the Americas— with a capacity of 40,000 inmates— and has been a symbol of the country's crackdown on domestic crime. CECOT prisoners do not receive visits and are never allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational programs to prepare them to return to society after their sentences.

CNN's David Culver, who visited the mega-prisons in 2024, described the deprivation as "deliberate," noting prisoners were allowed out of their crowded cells for just 30 minutes a day, adding that "there is no privacy here, no trace of comfort" and the lights are on 24/7.

"They do not work. There are not allowed books or a deck of cards or letters from home. Plates of food are stacked outside the cells at mealtimes and pulled through the bars. No meat is ever served. The 30-minute daily respite is merely to leave the cell for the central hallway for group exercise or Bible readings," Culver detailed.

Bukele declared a state of emergency in 2022, which allowed the government to temporarily suspend constitutional rights, including the right to legal defense provided by the state. The measure has led to many Salvadorans being taken into the prison with no evidence of crimes committed or due process.

That is seemingly the case of Jose Duval Mata, a 26-year-old Salvadoran truck driver who was accused of being associated with gangs and taken to CECOT despite the judicial system in his country ordering his immediate release twice.

In April 2022, Duval Mata was heading home to the rural community of La Noria, when he was detained by soldiers who had entered his town as part of President Bukele's nationwide offensive against the country's powerful gangs, BBC reports.

Despite his protests that he had never been in or worked for a gang, soldiers arrested him for "illicit association," a general term used under the state of emergency. Since then, his mom, who has called for the government to release her son, has not heard or known from him.

"The police told me I needed to bring evidence to prove his innocence, so I gathered his high school diploma, the deeds to his land, receipts for his bank loan payments, and a statement from his employer about his good conduct," Marcela Alvarado, Duval Mata's mom, explained. Experts told the BBC that almost no Salvadoran gang members would have in their possession.

Duval Mata was judged with more than 350 fellow prisoners in a court case that only lasted a few minutes. He was initially sentenced to six months. When his sentence was done, he was released briefly, but then taken into custody once again in the prison's doors under the same charges, once again with no evidence.

A judge approved his release in June 2023. But over a year later he is still behind bars and Alvarado's requests to see her son have been ignored.

Now, as Venezuelan migrants are taken to CECOT, families are quickly announcing similar experiences, denying their family members have ties to gangs. The families of three men who appear to have been deported told the Miami Herald that their relatives have no gang affiliation— and two said their relatives had never been charged with a crime in the U.S. or elsewhere. One has been previously accused by the U.S. government of ties to Tren de Aragua, but his family denies any connection.

"He shouldn't be imprisoned in El Salvador, let alone in a dangerous prison like the one where the Mara Salvatruchas are held," said the sister of Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez, one of the Venezuelan prisoners, referring to the international criminal organization with roots in El Salvador. "There are many innocent people behind bars. And today, my brother is one of them."

"We came to this country to work and do things right," she said. "It's painful that they blame my brother, and they portray him as a member of the Tren de Aragua. I don't accept the bad reputation created around my brother," she continued.

In the three years since the state of emergency was declared, security forces have arrested nearly 87,000 people nationwide, or more than 1% of the Salvadoran population, according to authorities. The government insists the crackdown has made the country safer, but critics say it has violated people's rights and resulted in countless cases of wrongful detentions.

The Venezuelan migrants who have been accused of belonging to transnational gang Tren de Aragua— though no evidence of these claims have been provided— and were taken to CECOT over the weekend are set to be held in the mega-prison for a year. But as Bukele's administration ramps up its anti-crime measures and further abandons due process, it remains unclear if this will be the case.