Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez believed he had arrived in Venezuela when he looked out the window of his deportation plane. After he read a sign that said “San Salvador,” he heard screams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We held onto the seats, we didn’t want to let go,” he told ABC News in Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yamarte Fernandez, who was one of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants\u00a0deported from the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison in March, is one of three Venezuelans who recounted what they say was their experience at CECOT to ABC News.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act<\/a> — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport alleged gang members by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Venezuelans were subsequently released to their home country<\/a> in a prisoner swap last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yamarte Fernandez and his two countrymen, speaking to ABC News from Venezuela, allege that they were beaten and denied access to lawyers while detained at CECOT. They deny being members of Tren de Aragua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alleged beatings began as soon as the Venezuelans arrived in El Salvador, Yamarte Fernandez said. The men, who were in handcuffs and chains, were immediately removed from the plane and taken to CECOT, where they say they were kicked, beaten and shaved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You’re going to see real hell,” Yamarte Fernandez said a CECOT officer told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Venezuelan told ABC News that they were forced to change clothes in front of CECOT officers who continued to beat them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They wouldn’t let us get dressed,” Yamarte Fernandez said. “If you tried to put on the boxers, they’d hit you with a stick in your private parts. If you screamed, they’d tell you to shut up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We had bruises all over,” he said. “We didn’t know what to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yamarte Fernandez said he was initially placed in a cell with 10 people but later transferred to a cell with about 80 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We were all cramped together, bumping into each other,” he said.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, Francisco Garcia Casique told ABC News that he experienced physical and psychological abuse at the prison. He said CECOT officers told the men they would never leave the prison and that “not even the pope or [Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro] could rescue them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n At times, Garcia Casique said, he and the other men couldn’t drink water because their bodies had “taken such a beating.” He denies allegations of being a member of Tren de Aragua and said he doesn’t know why he was sent to CECOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They linked me to a gang, but they never showed me any crimes that proved I was a criminal, you know?” Garcia Casique said. “I never thought I would end up in a terrorist prison.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He told ABC News he worked as a barber in the U.S. and had dreams of supporting his family in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n