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Venezuelans sent by Trump to El Salvador endured systematic torture, report finds
Robert Tait
More than 252 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador under Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy suffered systematic and prolonged torture and abuse, including sexual assault, during their detention, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report, compiled jointly by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal – a group investigating violations in Central America – says conditions at El Salvador’s sprawling “terrorist continent center” (Cecot) breached the UN’s standard minimal rules for the treatment of prisoners. It cites “inhumane prison conditions, including prolonged incommunicado detention, inadequate food” and other shortcomings.
The groups accuse the Trump administration of willful complicity in the suffering deportees endured after being flown to El Salvador in March and April, insisting that it ordered the men’s deportation while fully aware that they would be mistreated or even face threats to their lives.
They are calling an “independent investigation” by the US justice department, although they admit the prospect is unlikely. They are also demanding the Trump administration stop deporting third-country nationals to El Salvador.
US connivance in what is depicted as a systematic pattern of torture and human rights abuses evokes comparison with the scandal at Bahghdad’s Abu Ghraib facility during the “war on terror”, they say.
Juanita Goebertus, HRW’s Americas director, said:
We reached the conclusion that the Trump administration is complicit in systematic torture and enforced disappearances of the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador.
ShareTrump to host business leaders at White House dinner
Donald Trump is expected to host a private dinner at the White House tonight with several top business executives, including the chief executives of Nasdaq and JPMorgan Chase, an administration official told Reuters.
The gathering underscores Trump‘s effort to deepen ties with corporate leaders as his administration rolls out new initiatives aimed at strengthening US capital markets and rebuilding critical domestic supply chains seen as vital to national security. JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, has announced a decade-long, $1.5trn investment program aimed at industries central to US national security and economic resilience, including supply chain and manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy independence, and frontier technologies.
A White House official confirmed that Trump was meeting with financial leaders, but did not confirm a guest list.
Jamie Dimon, the head of the bank, has previously defended the independence of the Federal Reserve amid Trump attacks and had warned that swingeing tariffs made a recession more likely.
ShareHouse set to vote on deal to end record shutdown
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of US politics with the US House of Representatives expected to vote today to end the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history. It comes as anger flares among Democrats over the Senate compromise that drops an extension of key healthcare subsidies.
After keeping the chamber idle for more than 50 days, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, has recalled lawmakers to Washington to consider the short-term funding bill, which would keep the government open through January. The measure, advanced by a coalition of Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats, would avert further chaos but leaves millions facing potential increases in healthcare premiums.
The deal has exposed sharp divisions among Democrats. Progressive groups have accused Senate leaders of betrayal and even called for Chuck Schumer to step down despite not backing the deal himself. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries warned that Democrats are unlikely to back the bill, calling it “a Republican refusal to address the cost-of-living crisis”.
Johnson can only afford to lose two votes in order to pass the bill, and the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is likely to vote no. But Republican leaders have expressed optimism that the legislation will pass, and be sent to Trump for his signature.
Stay with us to see what happens.