Venezuelan nationals deported to El Salvador in the spring by the US government were tortured and ill-treated, advocacy groups reported Wednesday.

According to an 81-page report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal , a regional advocacy group, members of a group of 252 Venezuelan deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) were subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, and in some instances, sexual abuse, while held incommunicado in inhumane conditions . The organizations found a pattern of coordinated abuse rather than isolated incidents. One detainee told the organizations: “I’m on alert all the time because every time I heard the sound of keys and handcuffs, it meant they were coming to beat us.”

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