VENEZUELA: 200+ VENEZUELAN RELEASED AFTER ARBITRARY DETENTION

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD) welcomes the release and repatriation of over 200 Venezuelan nationals who had been held in El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

On 15 and 30 March and 10 April 2025, 288 individuals were transferred to El Salvador to be imprisoned in CECOT, including 252 Venezuelan nationals and 36 Salvadoran nationals.

• In response, ILAAD submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), on behalf of 23 Venezuelan or Salvadoran migrants calling for the immediate release and to accord them reparations, and an independent investigation into the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of their detention.

• ILAAD requested the Working Group to extend its opinion to all 288 transferees, as it can infer from this joint complaint and UN sources that their situation is identical to or fundamentally the same as that addressed in this joint complaint.

On July 18, 2025, over 200 Venezuelan transferees were released and sent to Caracas, Venezuela, in exchange for Americans held in Venezuela.

However, we must not overlook the bigger picture: 18 of those released were among the Venezuelan applicants named in our complaint to the UN WGAD. The other Venezuelan applicants and the two Salvadoran applicants remain in detention. Many others remain arbitrarily detained, and the mechanism of their release underscores a deeply troubling trend: the use of foreign detainees as diplomatic leverage.

While celebrating this long-awaited release, ILAAD stresses that arbitrary detention must never be used as a political tool.

In its 2020 Annual report (A/HRC/48/55) and in the light of the adoption of the Declaration against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations, on 15 February 2021, in Ottawa, the Working Group recalled its grave concern about the detention of foreign nationals especially in instances where foreign nationals are detained in a country in order to gain leverage in relations with the States of their nationality, and its recommendations for the proper and prompt consular assistance as an essential safeguard against arbitrary detention.

ILAAD respectfully requested the WGAD to:

• Demand immediate release, redress, and compensation for all remaining detainees held in CECOT;

• Ensure a full and independent investigation into the conditions and legality of the detention and transfer process.