Venezuela men sue aviation firms who flew them to notorious Salvadorian jail

The Cecot prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, where the Venezuelans deported from the US were imprisoned. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The Cecot prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, where the Venezuelans deported from the US were imprisoned. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images Venezuela men sue aviation firms who flew them to notorious Salvadorian jail Exclusive: CSI Aviation and GlobalX accused of violating civil rights as part of Trump immigration crackdown Venezuelan men sent last year to a notorious Salvadorian terrorism prison by the Trump administration are suing the US aviation companies that transported them there. A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Washington DC accuses the companies CSI Aviation and GlobalX of violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations, for their role in flying the three planes that took the men to El Salvador. CSI and GlobalX “went to great lengths” to undertake the “rendition flights” to El Salvador , “in concert with the US government, in flagrant violation of US and international law”, the lawsuit reads. Last year, in March, the Trump administration expelled more than 230 Venezuelan men held in US immigration custody to El Salvador, where they were detained for four months in a maximum security terrorism prison and tortured . The lawsuit accuses CSI and GlobalX of deliberately transporting the men to El Salvador, despite a federal judge ordering the flights to return and despite knowing they would probably be tortured inside the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (known as “Cecot” by its acronym in Spanish). Without CSI and GlobalX’s complicity, “neither Plaintiffs nor the Class would have been rendered to CECOT”, the lawsuit reads. The suit was filed by a team of human rights attorneys on 17 July and is being reported first by the Guardian. It is one of the latest attempts by rights groups to hold private contractors accountable for their role in alleged abuses stemming from the administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant crackdown. Venezuelans deported by Trump to El Salvador describe ‘horror movie’ mega-prison Read more “Many people might not be aware of the degree to which private companies are intertwined with the human rights abuses occurring under the Trump administration through the detention and unlawful deportation schemes that are occurring,” said Anthony Enriquez, the vice-president of advocacy and litigation for the Kennedy Human Rights Center, in an interview with the Guardian. Enriquez is one of the attorneys representing the Venezuelan men. CSI and GlobalX, which were hired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have “enjoyed unprecedented financial profits from the scheme”, while the Venezuelans “continue to experience severe emotional suffering from the humiliation, terror, and cruelty that they endured”, the lawsuit says. The DHS did not respond to specific