El Salvador’s Bukele releases prison footage disputing migrant torture claims

Al Salvador President Naib Bukele released a video highlight reel in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia is clearly concluded during his imprisonment, attempting to refute the migrant claims that he was tortured while in custody.

Abrego Garcia, who ruled by a judge, was removed by the Trump administration and then returned after a court order, video is seen in horticulture, plays football, grabbing fish and imprisoning other leisurely activities while imprisoning in the country of his home.

The video in the legal filing of the video Ebrego Garcia shows obstacles with claims that he was severely beaten, deprived of sleep and tortured psychologically while taking into custody.

Abrego Garcia was first held in March in the country’s imprisonment center of terrorism, or Cecot, a notorious terrorism jail, and then transferred to a low-safety facility in Santa Ana in the middle-central. Close does not say from which jail the footage was taken.

According to court documents, Abrego Garcia’s physical condition deteriorated quickly when he came to the secot and within two weeks, he lost about 31 pounds.

Abrego Garcia says he beaten in Salvadoron Jail in front of criminal trial, torture torture

But Boukele on Thursday pushed back against the claims, claiming that they actually put weight and released video evidence to refute torture claims.

The video shows Abrego Garcia well shown in good spirits, play chess and football, work with fellow prisoners, do gardening and other leisurely, watching a widescreen television in their cell between activities.

“If he was tortured, deprived of sleep, and hungry, why does he look so well in every picture?” Bukele wrote on x. “Why would he increase weight? Why are there no injuries under his eyes, or even dark circles?”

“The man was not tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show that he increased weight while detaining. There are many footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Wan Holen, who confirmed himself that the man looked fine.”

Bukele ripped the mainstream media to believe in claims.

Trump’s comment may return to him to bite the Abrego Garcia exile fight

Bukele wrote, “Apparently, anything criminal claims are accepted as the truth by the mainstream media and the collapse Western judiciary.”

Under the emergency of Bukle, the government has detained more than 1% of the population of the Central American nation in its war on the country’s gangs. The President has changed that once the world’s most dangerous country was – with a homogeneous rate of 103 per 100,000 people in 2015 – one of the safest in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.9 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024. In 2023, the US rate was with 5.5 per 100,000 people, the most recent records are available.

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of people have died in Al Salvador jails, citing groups of human rights, who have also documented cases of torture and deteriorating conditions.

Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland after coming to America illegally, was given to Al Salvador in March 2025. He became a major face of resistance to Democrats for collective exile schemes of Trump administration.

The Trump administration accused him amidst police reports by his wife as a member of the MS -13 gang, a human smuggler and a serial domestic abuser that he used violence against him.

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The lawyers of Abrego Garcia claimed that when he arrived in jail, he was immediately frightened by the jail guard who kicked him with shoes and hit him with a wooden baton on the way, leaving the bumps and injuries seen in his body.

He and other captives in the cell slept on a metal mattress, with minimal access to food and saturation. He was also forced to kneel for about nine hours, from 9 pm to 6 pm, “Any person falling from tiredness, according to the filing, according to the filing.

They claim that they were psychologically harassed and threatened violence during their time in Sekot, where jail guards repeatedly told them that they would transfer them to members of the violent gangs of other prison cells, which they assured that they would “tear” it.

white House Staff Deputy Chief Stephen Miller earlier said that when Trump declared a violent gang a terrorist organization, Abrego Garcia was no longer eligible for any kind of immigration relief in the United States that inspired his exile.

Fox News’ Brain Deppest and Associated Press contributed to this report.