CARACAS (Reuters) -A Venezuelan singer who spent months in a notorious prison in El Salvador returned to his family in Caracas overnight, one of the first of more than 250 former prisoners to arrive home after they were sent back to Venezuela last week.
Arturo Suarez was greeted with hugs and tears in working-class El Valle, south of the capital, by his sister, aunt and cousins. He later wiped away tears as he spoke to his wife and daughter, who live in Chile, via video call.
“I’m free now, thank God, at last,” said Suarez, who was arrested in February in North Carolina while filming a music video. He serenaded a crowd gathered in his family’s living room. “I still can’t believe it.”
The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the United States in March, after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without normal immigration procedures.
The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration. Families and lawyers of many of the men have denied they have gang ties.
His wife has said Suarez had gone to the U.S. to boost his emerging music career and that he denied being a member of Tren de Aragua.
“I thought of my daughter, I thought of my wife, of my siblings, of my family, I asked for strength to not give up, to not allow myself to die,” Suarez told journalists about his detention. “I didn’t – because I’m tough, I’m a Venezuelan.”
Suarez and the other detainees deported to El Salvador from the U.S. were returned to Venezuela on Friday in a prisoner exchange. Since arriving they have been undergoing medical checks and interviews with officials.
Suarez said the guards at the CECOT prison beat prisoners and told them they would only leave dead. Some detainees considered suicide, he added.
His comments tallied with other allegations of abuse made by former prisoners in videos broadcast on state television, including during a program with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday night.
Venezuela’s attorney general said on Monday his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other top officials over the alleged abuse.
Bukele’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the allegations.
The Venezuelan opposition has regularly critiqued the Maduro government for holding activists and others in abusive conditions within Venezuela.
(Reporting by Efrain Otero in Caracas, additional reporting by Sarah Kinosian in Mexico CityWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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