Trump thanked for undoing his cruelty
“We got a beating for breakfast. We got a beating for lunch. We got a beating for dinner,” Arturo Suárez told cameras upon returning to Venezuela after enduring four months in El Salvador’s infamous Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison.
In a prisoner swap, El Salvador this week sent back to Venezuela over 200 Venezuelan migrants deported to CECOT by the Trump administration (ABC News):
The deal included the release of 10 Americans held in Venezuela, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the result was that “every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.” In addition, the deal included the release of some “Venezuelan political prisoners and detainees” being held by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. said.
Mother Jones reports that relatives of those freed are both relieved and apprehensive:
Mariangi Sierra, sister of Anyelo Sierra Cano, said in a message she was feeling “emotional, happy, truly something inexplicable.”
For some relatives, the news of the men’s return to Venezuela evoked more mixed feelings. Maria Quevedo, the mother of Eddie Adolfo Hurtado Quevedo, told Mother Jones she was feeling relieved but still scared. “Happy because God gave me the gift of seeing my son free on my birthday,” she said. “Scared because my son is going to Venezuela, where he was threatened by the [paramilitary group] colectivos.”
Dozens of Venezuelans sent to CECOT had pending asylum applications in US immigration courts when they were removed. In some instances, their cases have been dismissed by immigration judges. They could now be vulnerable to potential harm and persecution back in Venezuela.
Various accounts speak to the details of the swap deal worked out between the U.S., El Salvador, and Venezuela. Ten Americans were included in the release. The Venezuelan government had detained the men as bargaining chips (The New York Times):
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the U.S. citizens and permanent residents had been arrested and jailed in Venezuela “without proper due process” and called for the “restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
The capture and imprisonment of the Americans had been part of the Venezuelan government’s efforts to gain an upper hand in negotiations with the Trump administration, while the detention of the Venezuelans in El Salvador played a high-profile role in President Trump’s promise to deport millions of immigrants.
Rubio’s complaint about lack of due process is pretty rich. The administration had no problem meting out the same treatment to migrants it kidnapped, deported, and imprisoned.
Look at that tweet above. Trump will get thanked for the release of Americans only imprisoned in Venezuela as a result of ICE actions against migrants here in the U.S.
None of this obviates the spreading black stain the Tump 2.0 administration leaves on what’s left of this country’s standing in the world. It won’t wash out in what’s left of my lifetime.
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