“When we arrived in El Salvador, the prison director told us: ‘Welcome to hell. You arrive alive here, but you will leave dead,'” recounted William (who did not wish to give his full name), reached by phone in Caracas.

The 27 year old was among the group of 238 Venezuelans expelled from the United States on March 16 to El Salvador and its Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), a prison that serves as a showcase for the authoritarian policies of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele. After four months in what indeed turned out to be a living hell, he was sent to Venezuela on July 18.

William has been unable to find work in Venezuela after suffering ligament tears in his knees during his time at CECOT. “As soon as we set foot in El Salvador, we were constantly beaten,” said the tailor, who had been pursuing the “American dream.” “I wanted to work hard and come back to Venezuela to open a pants factory.” Like him, nearly eight million Venezuelans are believed to have left their country since 2014.

He originally crossed Central America on foot, starting with the Darien Gap (a roadless jungle between Colombia and Panama), up to Mexico, reaching the US border on January 21, 2024: “I turned myself in to the US border guards, like all the migrants did at the time. But I never saw anything of the US. I spent 14 months in prison before being sent to El Salvador.”

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