‘It pains our souls’: Venezuelans react to first video of relatives in Salvadoran prison after Matt Gaetz TV report
CNN
Sitting on a couch in her home in Maracay, Venezuela, Mirelis Cacique López watches her son Francisco Javier García Cacique on her cell phone in the first video released of a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador’s maximum-security prison Cecot.
Sitting on a couch in her home in Maracay, Venezuela, Mirelis Cacique López watches her son Francisco Javier García Cacique on her cell phone in the first video released of a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador’s maximum-security prison Cecot. “Among the boys, I recognized my son,” Cacique López said to CNN. “We thank God for allowing us to see our relatives, even in those conditions,” she added, insisting that she will continue to pray for their release. The video aired Tuesday on the One America News Network, on a show hosted by former US Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. He visited Cecot and had access to the prison wing housing the group of more than 200 Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump’s administration, many under the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act, accused largely without evidence of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The report shows a roughly one-minute clip of the Venezuelans behind bars, dressed in white T-shirts and shorts, the Cecot prisoners’ uniform. From the moment the TV cameras enter the prison, the detainees react with shouts of “Freedom, freedom!” and “Venezuela!” while another group makes a fist with four fingers over their thumbs, a universal gesture asking of help. Yenni Luz Rincón Ramírez identified her brother Jonathan Miguel Ramírez in the video. “I felt joy because I was finally able to see him after 60 days,” she told CNN from Venezuela. She insisted that her brother’s detention is unjust and asserted that he is not a member of Tren de Aragua. Rincón Ramírez isn’t the only one who’s been able to see a loved one for the first time since the deportations were announced in March.
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