Politico Reporter Flags Glaring Problem With Bukele’s Video Defending Abrego Garcia’s Treatment at CECOT
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele tried to bat down CECOT torture claims made by Trump deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia — but the video he posted as proof is being openly challenged by one reporter, who pointed out it was filmed after the detainee left the prison in question.
The clash comes after Abrego Garcia’s attorneys claimed in court filings this week that their client endured “severe beatings” and “psychological torture” during his detention at CECOT, the country’s notorious maximum-security mega-prison. The documents allege he was confined to an overcrowded cell with 20 other men, with no mattresses and lights that blazed around the clock. Over the course of his detention, they argue, he lost 31 pounds and returned to the U.S. bearing visible bruises.
Bukele, however, took to X Thursday to reject the accusations outright, posting a video montage in a bid to argue that Abrego Garcia had been treated fairly.
“[T]he man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight,” Bukele insisted on X. “If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture? Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?”
Abrego Garcia’s court filing had been widely reported by journalists in the media when they became available on Wednesday, including by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, whose article was spotlighted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday as “sympathetic” to the deportee.
In his post, Bukele echoed DHS’s attack by also taking aim at the outlets for their reporting on the claims: “Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary.”
Cheney hit back at Bukele’s jibe Friday, arguing that a report on the court documents didn’t mean it was “accepted as truth.”
Rounding on the foreign leader’s denials, the journalist openly challenged Bukele’s video montage, implying it proved nothing and noting the footage began in April — “a week after [Garcia] left CECOT” where the alleged abuse took place.
Abrego Garcia was deported in March after the Trump administration wrongfully removed him from the country. The Supreme Court intervened in April, ordering his return, which he did in June.
After having fled El Salvador at age 16 and building a life in Maryland with his wife and children, Abrego Garcia now faces a trial on charges related to human smuggling. He has pleaded not guilty.
Watch above via X.
