Venezuela probes Bukele for crimes against humanity over migrants
5 Min Read
Venezuelan officials reveal disturbing accounts from deported migrants, urging global action as survivors describe torture and rights violations in El Salvador.
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People get ready to set an effigy representing El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele and Judas Iscariot, not seen, to be burnt as an Easter tradition in different communities in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP)
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced on Monday the launch of a criminal investigation into Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and two senior members of his administration, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity. The probe stems from the mistreatment of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
The investigation follows the March deportation of 238 Venezuelan nationals from the United States to El Salvador under a Trump-era immigration agreement. Upon arrival, the migrants were immediately transferred to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, CECOT, and treated as suspected terrorists. According to Venezuelan officials, human rights groups, and families of the detainees, most of those deported had no links to criminal activity.
“Three national prosecutors have been appointed to investigate the following Salvadoran officials: Armando Bukele, who violates his own Salvadoran constitution and calls himself President of El Salvador; Hector Gustavo Villatoro, Minister of Justice and Public Security; and Osiris Luna Meza, Director General of Penitentiaries,” Saab said during a press briefing.
He also called on international institutions, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Human Rights Council, to investigate the abuses tied to El Salvador’s crackdown on gangs, which he argued has expanded into indiscriminate punishment of migrants.
Torture inside El Salvador’s mega-prison
Venezuelan officials presented disturbing testimony from returnees detailing their experiences at CECOT. According to Saab, the deported migrants were subjected to beatings, sexual assault, and were fed spoiled food during their detention. Several had visible signs of injury, including rubber bullet wounds, bruises, and facial trauma.
At a press conference in Caracas, the prosecutor played video testimony from 32-year-old beautician Andry Hernandez Romero, who said, “We were going through torture, physical aggressions, psychological aggressions. I was sexually abused.”
Other detainees described being confined in overcrowded, sunless cells without ventilation, denied legal counsel, and cut off from their families. Families back home said the last images they received were state-issued photographs of the detainees, shackled, with shaved heads, upon arrival at CECOT.
By Monday, the migrants had not yet returned home but were receiving medical attention, new identity documents, and being interviewed by authorities. In Maracaibo, one mother, 46-year-old Mercedes Yamarte, shared the emotional moment she learned her son Mervin had survived. “At lunchtime on Monday, I got a call and heard: ‘Mom, it’s Mervin.’ I hadn’t heard my son’s voice in four months and seven days. Listening to him was a joy I cannot describe.”
US policies, political fallout, and Maduro’s accusations
The deportations occurred under the Trump administration’s use of wartime-era immigration powers that allowed rapid expulsions without due process. The move sparked international criticism, particularly after reports emerged about the treatment of the deportees in El Salvador.
Saab confirmed that Venezuela would formally pursue crimes against humanity charges against Bukele’s administration and reiterated calls for international accountability.
President Nicolas Maduro accused Bukele of actively trying to obstruct the migrants' return. “He couldn’t stop the first plane, but for the second one he parked a car on the runway... to provoke either an accident or prevent it from leaving,” Maduro said on his weekly television show.
Wider context
It is worth mentioning that International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have denounced the detentions at CECOT as clear violations of due process and basic human rights.
The prison, constructed under Bukele’s government to house gang-related suspects, received US funding in return for detaining the Venezuelan migrants, according to reports. During their time in CECOT, the migrants were denied phone calls and visits, and families repeatedly demanded, without success, proof of life.
In a related development, another flight carrying 244 deported Venezuelans, along with seven children, arrived Friday from Houston to Maiquetia airport. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said the children were "rescued from the kidnapping to which they were being subjected."
The children were among 30 who Caracas says remained in the US after their Venezuelan parents were deported.
"We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal," his sister, Sophie Hunter, said in a statement. Additionally, Uruguayan authorities confirmed that one of their citizens, a US resident, was released from Venezuelan detention after nine months.
Clamping down on undocumented migrants has remained a central component of Trump’s broader immigration agenda. Since February, over 8,200 Venezuelans, including approximately 1,000 children, have been repatriated from the United States and Mexico, where many had been stranded attempting to cross into the US.
Read next: El Salvador arrests human rights lawyer supporting deported migrants
