CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Some of the Venezuelan migrants the U.S. government moved to a Salvadoran prison earlier this year demanded justice on Friday, days after a federal judge in Washington ruled that the Trump administration must grant them legal due process.
The men told reporters in the Venezuelan capital that they hoped legal groups would push their claims in court. Their press conference was organized by the Venezuelan government, which has previously said it has reserved legal services for migrants.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. government to grant 252 Venezuelan men legal due process and either hold court hearings or deport them to the United States. The ruling opens the way for the men to challenge the Trump administration’s allegations that they are members of the Troon de Aragua gang and should be deported under 18th-century wartime laws.
The men have repeatedly said they suffered physical and psychological torture in notorious Salvadoran prisons.
“Today we are here to demand justice from the world for the human rights violations committed against each of us and to ask international organizations to help us in our defense so that our human rights are respected and no longer violated,” Andre Blanco told reporters in Caracas, where about two dozen migrants gathered on Friday.
Some men shared the daily struggles they now face — including the fear of leaving their homes or encountering law enforcement — which they say are the consequences of brutal abuse they suffered while in prison. The men did not specify what justice should look like in their cases, but not all are interested in returning to the United States
“I don’t trust them,” Norberto Aguilar said of the U.S. government.
The men flew to El Salvador in March. They were returned to their home country in July as part of a prisoner exchange between the Trump administration and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Camila Fabbri, Venezuela’s undersecretary for international communications, said Maduro’s government was working with a U.S. bar association and “all human rights organizations to prepare a major lawsuit against Trump and the U.S. government so that they can truly admit to all the crimes they committed against these people.”
