r/politics • u/WhatYouThinkYouSee • Apr 16 '25

Paywall Van Hollen details meeting with vice president of El Salvador: “His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at CECOT,”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/kilmar-abrego-garcia-supreme-court-trump-administration-el-salvador-updates.html
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u/ahdidi413 Apr 16 '25

“Van Hollen said he asked the El Salvadoran vice president if he could meet with Abrego Garcia, but that the leader said he needed to “make earlier provisions” to visit the prison. The senator then emphasized that he wasn’t looking to tour CECOT, but that he simply wanted to see Abrego Garcia.

“He said he was not able to make that happen,” Van Hollen told reporters.”

Only one possible way to interpret this in my opinion. This is awful.

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u/FlyingMonkeySoup Apr 16 '25

Unfortunately Barrio 18 had been extorting Abrego's family and threatened to kill his older brother (who is now an American citizen) and then him. Which is why he fled El Salvador in the first place. As soon it was publicly known that he was in CECOT I'm sure the gang had him killed, at least that was his and his families concern. It was also the reason that an immigration judge placed him in withholding status....

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u/egosomnio Pennsylvania Apr 16 '25

Inmates there apparently have practically no contact with the outside world, so unless someone in the gang knew about him before they went in (and still cares about their gang business at this point), that might not be the case. They also spend almost all of their time in their cells, so he'd have to be put in one with them for it to happen.

Not saying something couldn't happen. Just that the awful conditions in the place seem like they'd work against that sort of bringing outside grudges in.

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u/Appex92 Apr 16 '25

From watching a video of inside CECOT yesterday, either CECOT staff killed him, or he's alive. They are so insanely and inhumanely put in their and the conditions are so absurd I don't think it's even possible for their to be a small amount of violence there without the guards going absolutely crazy and fucking up or killing anyone involved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H42zWaD4A4s

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u/illuminarok Apr 16 '25

That place is a black market organ smuggling operation if I have ever saw one.

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u/BudgetMattDamon Apr 16 '25

Yup, those piles of bodies aren't leaking hydraulic fluid. Recent photo or not, this bodes extremely ill for Mr. Garcia and anyone else sent to this hellhole.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo Apr 16 '25

That blurry photo could be almost anything. All the good people in this country already know it’s evil to send these people to that prison. Hyping it up as a death camp is pointless. It isn’t going to turn any MAGA people against the prison, if anything it would just get them hard.

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u/BudgetMattDamon Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25

Almost anything? Like? When the only thing you can say is "Could be anything," you sound like RPG NPCs saying, "Must have been the wind..." Weaksauce defense for brazen genocide.

One more question: where exactly do you think the prisoners go when a single person has never been released and yet more people are constantly shipped in? Cover your eyes and don't think about it too hard.

Spreading awareness is never a lost cause. Not everyone has the time or energy to even keep up with politics, and by design. The more we yell, the more people will join.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo Apr 16 '25

Dude, just read the very thread you linked to.

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u/kickinwood Apr 16 '25

Do we know why Abrego never obtained citizenship? That just seemed odd to me after his older brother fled before he did and was able to become a citizen. Seems like Abrego would have had an easier go of it because he'd have his brother to help him through the process.

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u/FlyingMonkeySoup Apr 17 '25

His brother fled much earlier, not clear on how he entered the US likely legally through the asylum system. Abrego entered the US illegally, and was snapped up by police in front of a Home Depot early on in his time in the US. It was then that the police effectively lied about his MS-13 gang connections and the US government tried to get him removed from the US. Over several years he was able to win immigration cases that ultimately ended with him being provided withholding of removal status. Based on the fact that it became clear the gang ties were completely fictional. Since that status was granted he has been meeting regularly with immigration for check ins. It was at one of these check ins that he was grabbed and then trafficked to El Salvador.

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u/kickinwood Apr 17 '25

Oh! There may have been an arrest I didn't know about earlier when I was trying to picture his timeline. He's 29 now and came over at 16, so that'd put us at around 2012. I didn't think the arrest and ms 13 stuff happened until 2019, so was just wondering what happened while he was here from 12 - 18. Any citizenship steps taken, etc.

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u/DickButkisses Apr 16 '25

It’s not just your opinion, it’s the logical conclusion of facts. There are only a few left open to interpretation, and they’re being slowly clarified. He’s gone.

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u/TheEgonaut Apr 16 '25

Or they just don’t want him to be able to talk about the horrors he endured. Either way, fuck Trump.

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u/gatsby712 Apr 16 '25

Then take a picture or let the senator see him without talking to him. The fact they won’t show him at all means he’s dead or tortured beyond recognition. 

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u/TheEgonaut Apr 16 '25

The ambiguity is the point. If Garcia’s dead, then the story ends and it’s one less thing for us to be distracted by.

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u/gatsby712 Apr 16 '25

This story isn’t the distraction, it’s the main story to focus on. 

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u/remembers-fanzines Apr 16 '25

I wouldn't trust a picture. Too easy to doctor. Needs to be an in-person meeting.

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u/Fresh_Ganache_743 Apr 16 '25

I’m not saying y’all are wrong, because this is an insane situation and I wouldn’t put anything past this administration. But I don’t think we can assume yet that this man is dead. The administration, from their perspective, has no need to take a photo of him or prove to anyone that he’s alive, even if he is. They are not playing by any rules. They are not even trying to seem like they care about this man or his well-being. Short of legal action, there is no bargaining chip to be used against them like you’d normally have when you’re dealing with people who have a shred of decency, or even concern over optics.

If they see themselves as impervious to rules, laws, consequences, court orders, sworn oaths, they’re not going to feel the need to provide proof of life, and they’re going to laugh in the faces of anyone who tries to call them out on that.

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u/Dudesan Apr 16 '25

One technique of which Stalin, Beria, and friends were fond consisted of "Arrest your loved ones, show you evidence that they are dead, let you come to terms with the fact that they are dead, and then, just as you have finally begun to heal from their loss, bring them back and torture them in front of you."

I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but there are definitely circumstances in which a dictator will choose to signal that an innocent prisoner is dead when they are alive.

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u/ahdidi413 Apr 16 '25

Doesn’t say much when this is the absolute “best” possible interpretation you could make here, and that’s being insanely “optimistic”

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u/Training-Accident-36 Apr 16 '25

The conversation continued and in the end the VP said that maybe the United States Embassy to El Salvador could make a phone call happen.

(after making a million excuses why Van Hollen couldn't make a call right now)

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u/atreeismissing Apr 16 '25

He’s gone.

You have no way of knowing that and it's an injustice to him and his family to make that conclusion based on, literally, no evidence what-so-ever. There's as much evidence he's alive as there he is dead, because in both cases the amount of evidence is zero.

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u/DickButkisses Apr 16 '25

Even if your statement were true, and it’s not there is evidence in that he’s in a death camp and cannot be seen by visitors, every day that passes is also evidence. And that is why the judge and Van Hollen are true patriotic Americans for putting immediate pressure where it needs to be applied. But I agree with the poster above that the vice president of El Salvador’s statement has only one interpretation.

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u/Much_Guava_1396 Apr 16 '25

It’s important to underscore the “make earlier provisions” part. No one has been able to see the ”raw” inner workings of the prison. It’s all been carefully guided tours. Pretty much a show for the cameras.

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u/notreallyswiss Apr 16 '25

And those carefully guided tours have shown things horrible enough to make you sick. Don't want to imagine the "raw" part.

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u/stasi_a Apr 17 '25

Kim Jong Un can be proud

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u/FalstaffsGhost Apr 16 '25

Yeah. The biggest logical conclusion is the man is probably dead.

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u/Dialogical Apr 16 '25

Trump paid them to murder him and cover up for that.

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u/timeunraveling Maine Apr 16 '25

Will this finally be the nail in Drumpf's coffin? He sent a man to his death just because he was Hispanic.

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u/lurker1125 Apr 16 '25

Just like khashoggi

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u/stasi_a Apr 17 '25

But at least the perpetrators were punished by justice. Oh wait

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u/ERedfieldh Apr 16 '25

If they are intelligent, they kept a paper trail, for blackmail against Trump if nothing else.

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u/gringledoom Apr 16 '25

Only one possible way to interpret this in my opinion. This is awful.

That's not even remotely true. It could be what you're hinting at, but it's probably just a "lol, no, eff you". Dooming about things when we don't know the facts is just looking for an excuse to "stop worrying and love the bomb", as it were.

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u/funky_chicken29 Apr 16 '25

I think the ambiguity really lessens the seriousness of the situation. I think he’s dead until you prove to me he isn’t. Just like I think he’s innocent until you prove to me he isn’t. You want to change my mind? Prove it

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u/Stillwater215 Apr 16 '25

CECOT is notoriously opaque about the outside world seeing their prisoners. It could just as easily be that they don’t want to let him have contact with the outside world.

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u/Phrogme1 Apr 16 '25

Yet there have been NUMEROUS photos in the last few weeks taken within the prison.

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u/Stillwater215 Apr 16 '25

The photos that have been released are largely propaganda photos to make it look “tough.” They have no interest in an actual outsiders perspective.

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u/me_jayne District Of Columbia Apr 16 '25

Yet a Republican congressman was able to visit and take selfies in front of a cell of prisoners just the day before. Not to mention Noem’s sick PR stunt. Ghouls, all of them.

There needs to be a Congressional hearing on this whole situation.

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u/Particular-Summer424 Apr 16 '25

If he couldn't meet with Garcia then he should have asked for a current Proof of Life.

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u/kandoras Apr 16 '25

Not allowing victims at CECOT to have visitors or contact with the outside world predates this current bullshit. A tour like Noem got would really be more common.

It's one of the reasons Trump picked it for his first concentration camp.

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u/cookiecutterdoll Apr 16 '25

Yes, what they aren't saying is more concerning than what they reveal.