Last week, Richard Duarte Rodríguez walked out of El Salvador’s CECOT prison alive. That should not have been possible.
CECOT is not designed for release. It is a maximum-security facility built to bury people, not rehabilitate them. The Salvadoran government has made that clear, bragging that no one leaves unless it is in a body bag.
He was one of 250 Venezuelan men freed as part of a political deal. Richard survived. He walked out of one of the most brutal prisons in the the world after being disappeared there by the United States government.
If you don’t know who Richard is, I highly recommend you read the article I published about his story back in April:
BREAKING: No Trial. No Charges. Just Gone. Here is What the U.S. Did to Richard Duarte Rodríguez
Richard Alexander Duarte Rodríguez didn’t come to the United States looking for trouble. He came looking for a future. What he found instead was a bureaucratic machine that processed him like a number, detained him without a crime, and ultimately deported him to a foreign prison built for terrorists.
Where We Are Now
After his release, Richard was held by the Venezuelan government for 48 hours. He underwent health exams and interviews before finally being allowed to return home. He is now back with his children in Venezuela. For the first time since January, he spoke with his best friend Brian, who had spent months trying to track him down and keep his story alive. Richard is safe. But he is not okay.
He reported that inside CECOT, they were treated like terrorists. Guards beat them. They shot them with rubber bullets to punish them for trying to escape. Richard still has the marks on his back.
Other inmates said they were threatened with shotguns. They were hit with pepper bullets and tear gas as forms of punishment. They were forced to drink bathwater because there was no clean water. When they were injured, they were told to lie to the physicians and say they fell off a bunk. If they told the truth, they were beaten worse.
This is what the U.S. government paid for.
CECOT was designed by the Salvadoran government to hold the country’s most dangerous gang leaders. There is no natural light. There are no windows. Food is scarce. Medical care is nearly nonexistent. It was never meant to function as a legal detention center. It was built to disappear people. Yet that is where the United States sent hundreds of Venezuelan men with no criminal convictions. Most of them were never even charged. Many had active immigration cases or had already been granted Temporary Protected Status. They were deported anyway. Their names only released after a leak. The government tried to hide what they’d done. They were flown to El Salvador in secret under the revived Alien Enemies Act.
Richard was detained without charges, sent away without a hearing, and disappeared into a prison designed to break people. He followed every rule. He complied with ICE. He waited for his work permit. He trusted the system. It left him with scars and an empty house.
The United States put him there. The United States paid for it. And most of the men who were sent alongside him had no criminal record, either.
Richard is alive because someone kept asking where he was. Because someone refused to let him be forgotten. That is the only reason he is alive.
Now that Richard is home, his family is struggling to survive. Everything he owned is still in the United States. They were already struggling, and now they have one more mouth to feed. His family has launched a GoFundMe to help them afford food, medicine, and basic needs. They have nothing.
Richard Duarte Rodríguez is kind, curious, and deeply devoted to his children. He loves to laugh, especially at the absurdity of American fast food, and still sends voice notes filled with wonder and warmth. He taught himself English with a notebook. He dreams of opening a landscaping business. He is the kind of person who asks how you're doing before talking about himself, who takes any job he can find without complaint, and who believes in doing things the right way. He didn’t come to the United States to take. He came to build a life. And he still holds onto that dream even if the U.S. isn’t the safe harbor he thought it was.
If you want to help, you can donate directly to their GoFundMe. Every dollar goes toward food, medicine, and basic needs.
You can find their GoFundMe by clicking here: www.gofundme.com/f/richard-fought-through-cecot-now-lets-help-him-thrive
No one should have to survive what Richard survived, only to come home to an empty table.
You can multiply Mr. Rodriguez story by as many times as the prisoners that were sent there.
If the Venezuelan authorities can, they should file formal charges at the International Court of Justice at The Hague . We all know who to charge, they continue to threaten to do even more to “rid our country of immigrants “.
Trump started all this. He needs to be convicted and tried for crimes against humanity. Before he dies. Fuck the GOP for the presidential immunity. That must be overturned