Venezuelans deported to mega-prison 'trapped in black hole'

The lack of tangible information about her son Oscar – one of 238 Venezuelans deported by the US to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador – has driven Gertrudis Pineda to despair and left her at the brink of a breakdown.

She bursts into tears the instant we start to talk about Oscar.

"My son only went to seek the American Dream and now he's trapped in a nightmare," she sobs.

Oscar lived in Dallas, Texas. Gertrudis explains he laid carpets in apartments for a living: "He helped me by sending money for the family and to buy medicines for his father, who has diabetes."

Gertrudis is 1,800km away from Oscar, speaking to me from the stifling heat of Zulia state, in western Venezuela.

Mother and son are separated by six borders and the impenetrable walls of the Cecot, El Salvador's notorious "Terrorism Confinement Centre" – a maximum-security prison built to house violent of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs.

The US government accuses the Venezuelans detained at the Cecot of being of the Tren de Aragua gang.

The Trump istration removed them from US soil under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, without due legal process, putting the US Justice Department in conflict with a federal judge who had ordered the planes carrying the migrants to turn around.

Gertrudis knew her son had been picked up by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents but understood he was in Texas and most likely on his way to Venezuela.

She only found out he had been taken to the Salvadoran prison when her other son, who lives in Colombia, saw his name on a list shown on television.

Soon after, images of the 238 Venezuelans having their heads shaved were broadcast as they were being processed upon their arrival at the maximum-security Cecot.

Gertrudis could make out her son from a tattoo of a rose he has on his forearm.

"There are so many innocent boys in there," alleges Gertrudis.

"They didn't do anything wrong but they're treating them like animals. Where are their human rights":[]}