“Despite knowing that El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (‘CECOT’) mega-prison was a notorious blacksite, from which no detainee had ever left alive, Defendants went to great lengths to transport Plaintiffs and Class Members there, in concert with the US government, in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law,” the lawsuit alleges.
A group of Venezuelan men who were sent to a notorious Central American prison by the Trump administration have filed a lawsuit against the aviation companies contracted to transport them from the United States to El Salvador.
According to The Guardian, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week in a Washington, D.C.-based federal court. It names defendants including CSI Aviation and GlobalX, which allegedly violated the men’s civil rights through false imprisonment, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence, among other violations.
CSI and GlobalX, lawyers say, both went to “great lengths” to undertake the “rendition flights” to El Salvador, which were conducted “in concert with the U.S. government, in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law.”
The Guardian notes that, last year, the Trump administration expelled more than 230 Venezuelan men from the United States to El Salvador, where they were detained for up to four months in a maximum-security prison designed to house terrorists. The plaintiffs say they were there subjected to abuse, up to and including torture.
The lawsuit accuses CSI and GlobalX of deliberately transporting the men to El Salvador, despite a federal court ordering the flights to return and despite knowing that the men would likely be tortured upon arrival at the Terrorism Confinement Center, better known by its Spanish-language acronym, “CECOT.”
“Despite knowing that El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (‘CECOT’) mega-prison was a notorious blacksite, from which no detainee had ever left alive, Defendants went to great lengths to transport Plaintiffs and Class Members there, in concert with the US government, in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law,” the lawsuit alleges. “Defendants evaded or ignored judicial oversight and the foreseeable risk of torture and successfully delivered Plaintiffs and the Class to El Salvador for imprisonment at CECOT.”
A November 2025 report issued by Human Rights Watch indicates that the men were probably “subjected to what amounts to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance under international human rights law.” The same report also detailed inhumane conditions, torture, and an atmosphere tolerant of abuse, accusing guards of regularly beating, pepper-spraying, and sexually assaulting detainees.
The lawsuit says that the Venezuelan plaintiffs continue to struggle with the long-term physical and mental health effects of their confinement; CSI and GlobalX, in contrast, have allegedly “enjoyed unprecedented financial profits from the scheme and their relationship with the [Trump] Administration.”
Sources
Venezuelan immigrant sent to El Salvador’s notorious prison files $1.3M lawsuit against Trump admin
Venezuelan men sue aviation firms who flew them to notorious Salvadorian jail
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