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  • 6/11/2025
Almost three months after more than 250 Venezuelan migrants were held in a prison for terrorists in El Salvador, a cloak of silence surrounds the case. Neither their lawyers nor their families have had access to them. From El Salvador, our correspondent, Roberto Hugo Preza, updates us. teleSUR
Transcript
00:00Almost three months after more than 250 Venezuelan migrants were held in a prison for terrorists in El Salvador,
00:06a clock of silence surrounds the case.
00:08Neither their lawyers nor their families have had access to them.
00:11From El Salvador, our correspondent Roberto Gopresa with the details.
00:16Jaime Ortega leads the team of lawyers hired by the government of Venezuela
00:20to represent more than 250 migrants from that country,
00:23held in the terrorist confinement center, SIGOT, less than a week before three months of their illegal confinement.
00:31The lawyers have not had any contact.
00:38We can't speak of a delay of justice.
00:44Of a delay of justice? Why?
00:45Because perfectly well, the institution of habeas corpus generates and requires an immediate dynamic.
00:51It requires expeditious acts.
00:53Why? Because we are dealing with the personal freedom of a human being.
00:57In this case, the personal freedom of 252 Venezuelan citizens.
01:02They have been totally isolated for almost three months.
01:06This lawyer is clear that this is a political case,
01:09which has nothing to do with a violation of U.S. migration laws.
01:16The fact that there is no law for them, to be able to resolve them in a prompt manner,
01:20means that they are still in a legal limbo.
01:23Therefore, they are forgotten by a system that does not recognize them.
01:26As in El Salvador, they are not processed,
01:29but also in a system that rejects them on behalf of U.S. immigration.
01:33Therefore, if this were a legal issue, it would have been resolved by now,
01:37but it's totally a political issue.
01:39Social organizations have been vigilant and have repeatedly requested the government to release them
01:47and respect their rights.
01:48It must be remembered that there is no legal and juridical basis in Salvadoran legislation
01:58to help Venezuelan citizens who have not been seen or heard in court to be imprisoned in Salvadoran jails.
02:04Salvadoran jails are for those who have been convicted for crimes in Salvadoran judicial processes.
02:09In view of the silence of the state and the passivity of the justice institutions,
02:14the lawyers see the ruling of a federal judge in Maryland,
02:17which ordered the U.S. government to design a mechanism for Venezuelans
02:21to have the right to a hearing within a period of time that expires this Wednesday as a way out.
02:30We are ready.
02:31We have each and every one of the documents already prepared
02:34so that when the government of the United States and El Salvador coordinate the situation
02:38and calls to be ready to meet them,
02:40to let them know their rights both in El Salvador and the United States.
02:44And for this reason, we also have a strategic alliance
02:47with U.S. lawyers who are experts in immigration issues.
02:52In view of the uncertainty,
02:54relatives of two migrants detained at Zico traveled to this country
02:58to try to arrange a visit to the maximum security prison
03:01where entry is prohibited.
03:04Hugo Presa, Telesur, El Salvador.

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