El Salvador President Nayib Bukele fired back at claims that MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was being tortured while detained.
Bukele released a video showing Abrego Garcia seemingly in good spirits, contradicting allegations in court filings.
“Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary,” Bukele wrote on X. “But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine.”
“If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?” he asked. “Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?”
According to the court filing, Abrego Garcia was “forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way. By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body.”
Bukele said earlier this year during a meeting with President Donald Trump that he would not “smuggle a terrorist into the United States.”
When asked if he would return a deported MS-13 member currently involved in a legal battle, Bukele said, “How can I smuggle, how can I return him to the United States? I smuggle him into the United States? What do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it.”
When asked if he could release the gang member inside El Salvador, Bukele responded, “Yeah, but I’m not releasing—I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”
