Time’s Stunning Coverage of Renditions to El Salvador

THIS IS A MUST READ: Time’s What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced. The photographs alone are worth the click through. I don’t think anything else would be quite as compelling to bring to the classroom when discussing the recent rendition of Venezuelans to El Salvador.

Then, the story. The author captures the experience of the Venezuelans in a way I haven’t seen anywhere else. These paragraphs alone are chilling:

The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.

The men were pulled from the buses so fast the guards couldn’t keep pace. Chained at their ankles and wrists, they stumbled and fell, some guards falling to the ground with them. With each fall came a kick, a slap, a shove. The guards grabbed necks and pushed bodies into the sides of the buses as they forced the detainees forward. There was no blood, but the violence had rhythm, like a theater of fear. …

They entered their cold cells, 80 men per cell, with steel planks for bunks, no mats, no sheets, no pillow. No television. No books. No talking. No phone calls and no visitors.

Truly stunning coverage. We are lucky to have the benefit of this journalist’s access.

-KitJ