Earlier today, a coalition of human rights organizations filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of 18 Venezuelan nationals who were among the 288 Venezuelans and Salvadorans secretly transferred from the US to El Salvador’s maximum-security CECOT prison without any charge or warning - one year ago. The men were held in incommunicado detention for months, cut off from family, lawyers and any outside observers. None of them had any meaningful way to challenge their detention. This is the first case demanding El Salvador be held internationally accountable for violating the human rights of these individuals while illegally detained under a secret bilateral agreement with the United States.
The petition sets out new evidence of torture, abuse and mistreatment inflicted by Salvadoran authorities, corroborated by an independent team of medical experts from Physicans for Human Rights that evaluated the majority of the men. It is reinforced by expert evidence from Human Rights Watch and two former UN Special Rapporteurs on the human rights of migrants. The petition is also supported by a statement from a former state department official who details evidence of systemic torture and ill-treatment at CECOT that US officials would have been aware of when entering into the bilateral agreement.
The testimonies of the men reveal that they were subjected to systematic and brutal physical abuse from the moment they arrived in El Salvador and throughout their detention at CECOT. The petition evidences beatings, humiliation, and sexual assault. Guards forced the men to kneel for extended periods while handcuffed and physically restrained. They slept on metal beds and were provided mattresses only temporarily during visits from international observers. They were shot with rubber bullets and reported use of tear gas/pepper spray. Extreme physical abuse was also suffered by men in the isolation cell known as “La Isla” (The Island), where they were beaten, kicked, and deprived of food and water. As a result of this abuse, the men sustained significant physical injuries, including broken ribs, dislocated shoulders and jaws, head wounds, spinal pain, loss of feeling in parts of their bodies, and lasting marks from shackles. Many of these injuries were never treated or received only inadequate care.
The petition also describes systematic psychological torture and ill treatment throughout the men’s detention. When they first arrived at CECOT, the prison director told the men that they had “arrived in hell,” that they would never leave and that the only way out was in a "black bag." Guards regularly threatened to kill detainees, told them they would be buried alive, and that there was a crematorium to dispose of their bodies so no one would ever find them.
Many of the men, who have since been returned to Venezuela, suffer long-lasting physical and psychological harm because of this treatment in detention.
“The US and El Salvador colluded to strip hundreds of people of their rights and freedom. These individuals were ripped from their families, vanished without a trace and tortured in a prison widely condemned by the international community. This is a human rights catastrophe.” said Bella Mosselmans, co-counsel on the petition and Director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council (GSLC). “No one should endure this. Human rights to dignity, freedom from torture and abuse, and due process are universal. Yet one year later, these men are still waiting for justice. We are demanding accountability for them, for their families and to ensure it never happens again.”
The petition also sets out the significant impact on the men’s families. For months, relatives did not know where their loved ones were being held or whether they were alive. Families attempted to obtain information from authorities, contact lawyers, and file legal petitions, but received no responses. In some cases, they only learned of their relatives’ location after seeing videos circulated online showing prisoners being publicly displayed inside CECOT.
"The men disappeared to CECOT are beloved fathers, sons, husbands, and neighbors," said Julie Bourdoiseau, Staff Attorney at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). "U.S. and Salvadoran authorities ripped them from their homes and communities without warning, and without any semblance of due process. Their families endured months of agonizing uncertainty, with no way of knowing where their loved ones were, how they were being tortured, or whether they were even still alive. One year later, these families have received no redress for the unimaginable pain our governments inflicted upon them. That is unacceptable."
The petition also notes that the 36 Salvadorans who were transferred by the United States under the same agreement remain unaccounted for, and their families remain unable to contact them.
“This petition is not only about accountability for our clients,” said Alejandra Chajon, a student attorney at the Cornell Law School Transnational Disputes Clinic, “it is also a warning to any government that would collaborate in such disappearances: you will have to answer for these devastating harms.”
The petition is the latest legal development from the coalition following their emergency filing at the Commission last year seeking to pause implementation of the US-El Salvador deal. This action now seeks a ruling on the merits of the rights abuses and provides novel testimony of those held in CECOT, alleges that El Salvador violated numerous human rights of the men and their families, and calls for comprehensive redress measures.
The petition has been filed with the IACHR, a part of the Organization for American States, which is a regional body tasked with protecting and promoting human rights across the region. Under the American Convention on Human Rights, which El Salvador ratified in 1978, countries in the region have given the IACHR the power to investigate action by the state and remedy human rights violations. It also has the power to refer El Salvador to the Inter-American Court which can ultimately issue a court order to the same effect, including evaluating liability under a separate treaty prohibiting torture in the region. Notably, El Salvador has complied with orders of the Inter-American human rights system under previous regimes.
This petition forms part of a wider series of cases brought by members of the coalition challenging US externalization of immigration enforcement and refugee obligations across the world as similar agreements proliferate and continue to inflict serious harm. Earlier this month, the IACHR heard from 22 organizations across the region in a public hearing on the Trump administration’s widespread and escalating use of third-country transfers. They highlighted the devastating human impacts of these agreements, including children being detained and families being forced apart.
"The United States' transfer of over 250 Venezuelans to El Salvador in March 2025 shows a troubling practice: banishing people to countries with which they have no ties, violating fundamental international human rights standards," said Isabel Carlota Roby, senior staff attorney at Kennedy Human Rights. "Outsourcing migration control does not erase the United States’ responsibility. At the same time, El Salvador, and other third countries, cannot accept these transfers while ignoring their own legal obligations to protect human rights and ensure due process. We call on the Inter-American system to send a clear message: protecting human dignity is a shared international obligation."
The filing calls on the IACHR to hold El Salvador responsible for violating numerous human rights of those detained, including through:
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Criminal investigations into reports of torture, abuse, and mistreatment;
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Official recognition that they did not belong to any criminal group and that there was no basis for their detention;
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Compensation and psychiatric support for the human rights violations they and their families have suffered; and
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Guarantees that this never happens again.
“The treatment of these men reflects a profound breakdown of basic human rights protections,” said Susan Akram, director of the Boston University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic. “They were transferred without warning or legal process and detained in conditions that international law unequivocally prohibits. We urge the Inter-American Commission to take decisive action to hold El Salvador accountable and to reaffirm that governments in the region cannot evade their human rights obligations through secret transfers and unlawful detention.”