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The Men Trump Disappeared
Last edited Fri Aug 8, 2025, 06:34 AM - Edit history (2)
AUG 5, 2025
In March of this year, despite a judge’s order and public outcry, more than 230 Venezuelan men were deported by the Trump administration to a violent maximum-security prison in El Salvador known as CECOT. In late July, those men were suddenly released — with no explanation or apology for their brutal treatment. Now, in a collaboration between ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News, we can finally find out who these men are and what they endured. According to the accounts featured in “Now That They’re Free,” published last week, the experience was every bit as nightmarish as their families, friends and advocates feared it would be.
We interviewed nine men for this story. They are bewildered, frightened, angry. Some said their feelings about what happened were still so raw they had trouble finding words to describe them. All of the men said they were abused physically and mentally during their imprisonment. Their relatives say they, too, went through hell wondering whether their loved ones were alive or dead, or if they would ever see them again. All the men said they were relieved to be free, though some said their release was proof the United States had no reason to send them to prison to begin with.
internal data showing the Trump administration knew that at least 197 of the men had not been convicted of crimes in the U.S. — and that only six had been convicted of violent offenses. We identified fewer than a dozen additional convictions, both for crimes committed in the U.S. and abroad, that were not reflected in the government data.
Although these men are no longer incarcerated in a foreign prison, the Trump administration is expanding its own detention network through slapdash facilities in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, and in office buildings and basements in cities around the country. The fight to get some insight into what is happening inside places like the detention camp in southern Florida swampland is still ongoing.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-men-trump-disappeared/
13 replies
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that Venezuela exchanged for the 238. ramprtd asked "now about those 10 americans released in the deal??? who are these guys, released by venezuela and not greeted home with rose petals?"; in fact, they did get a welcome back
The NYT article has the murderer circled:
Archive link for the 1st Aug NYT article that SpankMe linked to below shows that the State Dept realised during the process they were freeing a triple murderer, didn't like the optics, but didn't seriously think about saying "no, he should stay in prison".
On July 18, the day of the prisoner release, U.S. officials tried to figure out whether and how to acknowledge that Washington was bringing home Dahud Hanid Ortiz, whose case seemed to undercut President Trump’s claims of keeping the worst of the worst out of the United States.
In an internal email exchange that was obtained by The New York Times, State Department officials debated whether to include Mr. Hanid Ortiz in a public statement to be published that afternoon about the people being released, 10 including him.
“We had understood that we don’t want to refer to him as a hostage or wrongfully detained, which is why we said nine,” a press official wrote.
Michael Kozak, the career official who oversees diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere, replied: “Well then we probably should not have asked for him. Can we now extradite him to Spain? We did get the S.O.B. released.”
Finally, Mr. Kozak made the decision to include him: “Well I would stick with 10 as we did ask for and receive 10.” He added that the fact that at least one “is a bum does not change that fact.”
https://archive.ph/jU0Bk
In an internal email exchange that was obtained by The New York Times, State Department officials debated whether to include Mr. Hanid Ortiz in a public statement to be published that afternoon about the people being released, 10 including him.
“We had understood that we don’t want to refer to him as a hostage or wrongfully detained, which is why we said nine,” a press official wrote.
Michael Kozak, the career official who oversees diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere, replied: “Well then we probably should not have asked for him. Can we now extradite him to Spain? We did get the S.O.B. released.”
Finally, Mr. Kozak made the decision to include him: “Well I would stick with 10 as we did ask for and receive 10.” He added that the fact that at least one “is a bum does not change that fact.”
https://archive.ph/jU0Bk
All indications are that this triple murderer is roaming the streets of the USA free, having been in jail for under 7 years. And that's Trump's fault.
