Venezuelan man deported to CECOT prison sues U.S. for $1.3 million
A Venezuelan man who was deported from the U.S. and detained at CECOT prison in El Salvador has become the first known ex-prisoner to sue the U.S. for damages.
Updated on: March 24, 2026 / 8:02 PM EDT / CBS News
In an interview with CBS News, Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 28, described the months he spent at the prison as "total hell."
The Venezuelan man said he and his fellow detainees were constantly beaten and mistreated by prison guards. He recounted having to drink the same water he and other prisoners bathed in. Prison guards also told him he would be there for 90 years, he said.
"There came a point when I thought about hanging myself with the sheet they gave us," Leon Rengel told CBS News in Spanish.
Leon Rengel was one of several hundred Venezuelan men deported by the U.S. to El Salvador, where they were held incommunicado in CECOT for roughly four months. They were freed in a prisoner swap in July 2025.