AFP covers return of Venezuelan migrants from Terrorism Confinement Center

The English-language Korea Herald runs news syndicate AFP’s story on the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) under the head “Tears of joy as Venezuelan migrants return from Salvadoran prison 'hell'.”

The story notes that El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, “accepted payment of millions of dollars from Donald Trump's administration to add migrants deported from the US to his prison population in a move widely denounced by human rights groups.” The reporter chronicles the return home of Maikel Olivera, who “was arrested in the US just days short of his second month there, accused of being a gang member, held for five months and then sent to El Salvador with 251 other Venezuelans.”

“Caracas—itself under investigation for alleged rights violations in its own prisons—says the men [held in CECOT] were beaten, shot with rubber bullets, sexually abused and given rotten food to eat during their incarceration.”

Olivera said, “I had a friend who was gay, they raped him.” Another returnee told AFP, “It was complete torture what we were enduring, I have many marks on my body.”