Salvadoran President Dismisses Abrego Garcia’s Claims of Torture

 

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele dismissed claims by lawyers of suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia that he was tortured while in prison in the South American nation, according to a July 4 post on X by Bukele.

Garcia, 29, a native of El Salvador and an illegal immigrant, was sent to an El Salvadoran maximum security prison in El Salvador in March by the U.S. government for allegedly being a member of MS-13. Garcia was brought back to the United States last month after the Supreme Court ordered his return.

In a July 2 lawsuit filed by Garcia at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Trump administration officials, he claimed to have been tortured while in the CECOT prison, El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. CECOT is one of the largest prisons in the world.

The lawsuit had claimed that Garcia was subjected to “severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.”

“During his first two weeks at CECOT, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia suffered a significant deterioration in his physical condition and lost approximately 31 pounds (dropping from approximately 215 pounds to 184 pounds),” the lawyers said in the complaint.

Bukele responded to the lawsuit, saying that Garcia “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight.”