The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office will initiate a criminal investigation against Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and other senior officials of his government for the systematic violation of human rights suffered by Venezuelans during their irregular imprisonment in the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), the head of the institution, Tarek William Saab, announced this Monday.
“We have decided to open a formal investigation […] into the following officials from El Salvador: Nayib Armando Bukele, a satrap who violates the Salvadoran Constitution and calls himself president of El Salvador. Héctor Gustavo Villatoro, Minister of Justice and Public Security of El Salvador; and Osiris Luna Meza, Director of Penitentiary Centers and Deputy Minister of Public Security of that country,” the senior official announced in a press appearance.
Based on the victims’ accounts, Saab asserted that the Salvadoran president “was the one who organized the action, the mastermind” of the harmful behavior against Venezuelans. “There wasn’t a single day or hour in which Venezuelans weren’t brutally tortured,” he asserted.
Among the list of crimes for which high-ranking Salvadoran officials will be investigated are torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, forced disappearance, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and criminal conspiracy.
To support his claims, he presented public testimony from some of the 252 migrants who were repatriated last Friday, following direct negotiations with the US. Those affected reported having suffered repeated physical and psychological abuse inside the Salvadoran maximum-security prison. In addition to allegations of sexual abuse by guards, who allegedly acted “under Bukele’s instructions.”
Among other violations, the repatriated migrants reported being subjected to repeated beatings, confinement in spaces deprived of natural ventilation and light for long periods.
As well as “systematic attacks with pellets,” punishments consisting of “remaining kneeling for hours on rough floors.” “Permanent exposure to intense artificial light,” receiving spoiled food and unsafe water, and denial of medical care.
They were also subjected to interrogations without legal representation, prohibited from any contact with their families, and deprived of the ability to communicate with other people.
On these grounds, Caracas urged international justice bodies to take measures aimed at sanctioning the Bukele administration. Which allegedly committed “crimes against humanity.”
With information from RT in Spanish
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