Raw Story / Sabrina Haake: Opinion Prison torture videos are a new low even for MAGA - but Trump is about to go lower

[Dennis Donovan]

Raw Story / Sabrina Haake - (archived: https://archive.ph/UzMuJ ) Opinion | Prison torture videos are a new low even for MAGA – but Trump is about to go lower

Sabrina Haake - Commentary
May 3, 2025 6:50AM ET

/snip/

MAGA delights in Trump’s cruelty
After his usual braggadocio, Trump pivoted to video recordings of abject cruelty. Behind the podium, Trump displayed large screen videos of the inhumane treatment of helpless migrants he deported to El Salvador's notorious gulag, CECOT. He brayed, still without evidence, “The worst of the worst are being sent to a no-nonsense prison in El Salvador… watch this!”

“This” was a series of video clips showing hundreds of men he has imprisoned without due process, without a hearing, and without credible evidence that they committed any crime. “This” was a video showing men brutally bent over, having their heads shaved bare, and forcibly shoved into concentration camp-style cages that sleep 75 to 80. “This” was Trump priming his already violence-prone base into a bloodthirsty frenzy, as they exploded in raucous approval of his inhumanity, thundering, "USA! USA! USA!"

According to an affidavit from the Human Rights Watch, prisoners held in CECOT are denied communication with the outside, and only appear before courts in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time. The Salvadoran government calls them “terrorists” who “will never leave” the prison.

El Salvador, governed by a man who controls the media and calls himself a “cool” dictator, denies human rights groups access to its prisons, and allows journalists to visit only under highly staged circumstances. In videos produced during these visits, prison authorities brag about men held in completely dark solitary confinement cells.

/snip

[sop]

1. Given El Salvador's turbulent political history since gaining independence from Spain in 1821, "marked by

periods of instability, authoritarian rule, and violence, culminating in a devastating civil war fought between the government and leftist guerrilla groups," Bukele could end up in his own CECOT prison if he's seen as Trump's puppet.