Four Salvadorans deported by Donald Trump’s government last March and reported missing by their relatives have finally been placed in different prisons in the Central American country’s penitentiary system, according to official documents to which EL PAÍS had access. They are José Osmín Santos Robles, Brandon Bladimir Sigarán Cruz, William Alexander Martínez Ruano and Irving Geovani Quintanilla García, who were deported in March 2025 together with more than 238 Venezuelans, accused of being members of terrorist structures without the Republican administration providing evidence against them.
After their deportation, the government apparatus led by Nayib Bukele refused for months to provide information on the whereabouts of the young men to their relatives; However, after repeated requests for information from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), the Executive has finally recognized that they are under its power. According to documents obtained by EL PAÍS, only Brandon Sigarán is detained in the Confinement Center for Terrorism (Cecot), the mega-prison wanted by Bukele and today a sad symbol of the lack of guarantees for Salvadoran prisoners. The other three are in the Santa Ana Industrial Sentence Enforcement and Rehabilitation Center, a less rigorous prison.
This week the CIDH issued precautionary measures in favor of the first three, while for Quintanilla García it had already requested them since last October 2nd. According to the international organization, the lives of the four young people risk suffering “irreparable damage”, which is why it asked the Salvadoran state to guarantee their integrity.
The Commission also asked the Bukele government to formally clarify the legal situation of the four detainees, specifying what crime they are accused of and whether they have already been presented before a judge. The applicants before the IACHR assure that they have not been informed of the crime of which they are accused, nor of the reason why they remain in prison, since they have not had access to them since they were deported. The regional body also called for an end to the isolation of prisoners and to allow regular contact with their families and lawyers.
In the previous months, the families of the four had reported their disappearance, contacting various media outlets. Following these contacts, the Salvadoran government accused the IACHR of leaking information from its internal communications and called for measures to be taken to “ensure the confidential nature of the information.” EL PAÍS had access to the document, dated November 6 and signed by the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the Organization of American States (OAS), in which the authorities of the Central American country claim that public knowledge of these cases “facilitates their exploitation for purposes unrelated to the objective of the precautionary measures”.
For seven months, the Salvadoran government denied knowing the whereabouts of the four young men. Until mid-October, when he confirmed his position. However, none of the relatives have yet been able to see the detainees.
Detained without knowing why
Although the Salvadoran Executive admitted to detaining the four young deportees, on several occasions it tried to avoid providing information about them. In another document dated 29 August 2025, the Government responded to the IACHR that it had no information on Irving García, since “the arrest of the young man took place under the jurisdiction of another State”. Furthermore, he added that this fact places El Salvador “in the position of not being able to provide information.”
The same thing happened in the case of Brandon Sigarán Cruz. A relative of the migrant shared with EL PAÍS dozens of screenshots and official documents that reflect the requests for information made by the family to various government bodies such as the Salvadoran Embassy in the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Directorate of Penal Centers. In the screenshots you can see how the information workers pass the responsibility to each other without anyone giving real information to the family member asking for help.
Sigarán was captured on February 22, 2024 while going to work with his brother. After a year of detention, he was deported in March 2025 along with hundreds of Venezuelans. After identifying him in a video published by President Bukele, the family launched legal proceedings to locate him and ask for his release. “A lawyer helped us search all the prisons in El Salvador until he discovered that she was in Cecot. Then she resigned because she said she feared retaliation for having turned against President Bukele’s government,” says a relative of Sigarán.
The precautionary measures issued by the IACHR in favor of the four Salvadorans indicate that it is not known what crimes they are accused of and whether they have been presented before a judge, as required by law.
On March 15, President Bukele announced through his X account that El Salvador would welcome hundreds of Venezuelans and deportees of other nationalities from the United States in exchange for a lease that would allow the North American country to expand its prison system. However, months later, it was learned that there was another interest behind that agreement: Bukele wanted a dozen gang leaders in power of the US authorities who could testify against him.
After multiple hurdles, the prison deal between Trump and Bukele to imprison undocumented migrants appears to have reached its final conclusion. In July, the Salvadoran president handed over more than 200 Venezuelans who had spent months in Cecot in exchange for a share of American political prisoners. A recent report by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal confirmed that these Venezuelans were subjected to torture. Meanwhile, the fate of Salvadorans held in the same prison remains unknown. Cecot, despite intense official propaganda, continues to be a black hole from which almost no one escapes.
