El Salvador Deportation Case 2025 is About How four deported Salvadorans disappeared into El Salvador’s prison network and why the IACHR now warns their lives are at risk.
Four Salvadorans deported by the Donald Trump administration last March, who had been reported missing by their families, were finally located in different prisons within the Central American country’s penitentiary system, according to official documents obtained by EL PAÍS. They are José Osmín Santos Robles, Brandon Bladimir Sigarán Cruz, William Alexander Martínez Ruano, and Irving Geovani Quintanilla García, who were deported in March 2025 along with more than 238 Venezuelans, accused of being members of terrorist networks without the Republican administration providing evidence against them.
After their deportation, Nayib Bukele’s government refused for months to provide information about the men’s whereabouts to their families. However, following repeated requests for information from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), the executive branch of El Salvador finally acknowledged that they are in its custody. According to documents obtained by EL PAÍS, only Brandon Sigarán is being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the mega-prison promoted by Bukele and now a grim symbol of the lack of guarantees for Salvadoran prisoners. The other three are being held at the Santa Ana Industrial Center for Sentence Enforcement and Rehabilitation, a less strict prison.
Last week, the IACHR issued precautionary measures in favor of the first three, while measures had already been requested for Quintanilla García on October 2. According to the international body, the lives of the four young men are at risk of “irreparable harm,” and it has asked the Salvadoran state to guarantee their safety.
The IACHR also requested that the Bukele government formally clarify the legal situation of the four detainees, specifying the crimes they are accused of and whether they have already been presented before a judge. The plaintiffs before the IACHR claim they have not been informed of the charges against the detainees or why they remain in prison, as they have not had access to the inmates since their deportation. The IACHR has also requested an end to the prisoners’ isolation and for them to once again be to regularly contact their families and lawyers.
In the preceding months, the families of the four had reported their disappearance, contacting various media outlets. Following these contacts, the Salvadoran government accused the IACHR of leaking information from its internal communications and requested measures to “guarantee the confidentiality of the information.”
For seven months, the Salvadoran government denied knowing the whereabouts of the four young men, until mid-October, when it confirmed their location. However, none of their families have yet been able to see the detainees.
Trump-Era Deportations to El Salvador Linked to Migrant Torture, Report Shows
