Venezuelan men allege mistreatment while in detention in Guantánamo Bay

A guard at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso, Texas, told him to pack his stuff.

“I kept asking, ‘Where am I going?'” Durán Arapé recalled. He said ICE agents told him, “You are going to Venezuela.”

Durán Arapé alleges he was beaten by guards. He said the mistreatment by detention officers got so bad, he tried to harm himself twice in the two weeks he was in Guantánamo.

The detainees held a 5-day hunger strike. At least one time the detainees said they blocked the camera in their cells to catch the guards’ attention.

Responding to questions from reporters Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that migrants who break the law and commit “heinous acts of violence” are going “to be deported from this country and you may be held at Guantánamo Bay. These are criminals we are talking about. Don’t forget that.”

However, in court documents released last week because of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Trump administration admitted that nearly 30% of the detainees were considered, quote, “low-threat illegal aliens” and did not have criminal records.

Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

Durán Arapé said there were about 10 people in the U.S. military plane that transported them to Guantánamo. In total, 178 Venezuelan men were detained there, court documents in the ACLU lawsuit show.

The men, according to President Trump, were “the worst of the worst” and are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang recently designated by the Trump administration as a terrorist organization.

Durán Arapé tried to enter the U.S. in July 2023, when he was 19 years old, using the CBP One app — a mechanism created by the Biden administration, and cancelled by Trump, that allowed entry into the U.S. to asylum seekers while they waited for their asylum claims to be heard. He said he wanted to have a better life in the U.S. and help his family in Venezuela, and his son in Honduras. He was in detention for nearly 19 months and never got an asylum hearing.

The government claimed he was a member of Tren de Aragua, but provided no evidence. Durán Arapé was convicted of aggravated assault for kicking a public safety officer during a 2023 riot in the El Paso immigration facility while he was being detained.

Durán Arapé said he was not given water or food, and did not have access to bathrooms on the plane. 

When the plane landed, he said he was surprised to see ICE agents and soldiers in uniform. That’s when he realized he was not in Venezuela.

He said he was put in a 9-by-6 foot cell, calling it all a “really bad experience.”

“We got almost no food, the water tasted weird,” Purroy Roldán said in Spanish from his home in Caracas, Venezuela. “We could only shower every three days and we were escorted to the showers while shackled as if we were criminals.”

The men said they kept asking for a phone call with an attorney or family member but they said guards told them no.

So they pushed back.

Durán Arapé said he then started to demand a phone call by kicking on the cell’s door after realizing the hunger strike was not effective.

“[Guards] would show up and they would start hitting me, throwing me against the floor, putting me in handcuffs, and putting my legs in the form of an X,” Durán Arapé said in Spanish.

Purroy Roldán said only on the last day in detention at Guantánamo Bay they were offered a call with an attorney.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration earlier this month demanding migrants in Guantánamo get access to attorneys.

Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said his organization has already started hearing some “horrendous stories about the conditions in Guantánamo.”

“Guantánamo has always been notorious for secrecy and abuse,” he said, adding that the base “is so remote and there’s a lack of transparency.”

“Regardless of the conditions, we don’t believe that the government should be sending people to Guantánamo at all.”

Allegations of mistreatment

However, Durán Arapé said that because of his behavior, guards would at times strip him off all of his clothes except for the underwear before going to sleep. The guards would also take away the foam mattress he was provided with, as well as the blanket and pillow.

All of this was tormenting Durán Arapé.

“I have a son that I haven’t been able to see grow because I’ve been detained for so long — thinking about that made my head hurt,” he said. “I thought I was going to stay in Guantánamo forever.”

Transfer to Venezuela

Two weeks after getting to Guantánamo, on Feb. 20, ICE announced on X that 177 Venezuelan migrants would be transported to Honduras, to be picked up by the Venezuelan government. One additional migrant, court records show, was returned to the U.S.

But Durán Arapé didn’t believe it.

When the flight landed in Honduras, Durán Arapé said he thought they had arrived in El Salvador, based on the colors of the flag he first saw. He had heard about El Salvador’s offer to jail migrants deported, and even U.S. citizens accused of committing crimes.

“I said to myself, ‘I’m really going to die here,’ ” he said.

Eventually he saw an aircraft of Conviasa, Venezuela’s flagship airline, and realized he was closer to being deported back home.

Back in Venezuela

When the Conviasa airplane landed in Caracas Thursday night, both men felt relieved.

Purroy Roldán said they were received by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and he felt he was finally treated like a normal person, not a criminal.

“I’ve been able to sleep,” he said, adding he had not been able to sleep for the last few weeks. “I’m starting to feel more comfortable.”

Durán Arapé said he felt like a bird leaving its cage.

“I felt free, it felt like I was living again,” he said.

Durán Arapé said he’s grateful to be home with loved ones, but he said he’s been having nightmares. Recently, when the sun peeked through his window, he woke up in a panic thinking guards would come in to wake him up.

“I’m going to talk to my family to see if they can help me get a mental health specialist to help me get over this,” he said. “It’s something that makes me angry because they violated my rights, I was discriminated against, and I was abused verbally, and physically.”