None of the 252 Venezuelans who spent four months in a notorious Salvadoran prison belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang as claimed by the United States when it sent them there, the government in Caracas said Monday.
The men were released on July 18 in a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, and claimed they were severely mistreated.
"They told us they were all from the Tren de Aragua. Lies, big lies," Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told reporters.
"They said that those who were taken to El Salvador: 'all of these are powerful criminals'," he added.
In fact, only 20 had criminal records, seven of those for serious offenses, and "none were linked to the Tren de Aragua."
The 252 men were detained in US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, accused without evidence of gang activity, and sent to El Salvador's so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Four of them told AFP the months were marked by abuse, violence, spoiled food and legal limbo in the prison built by the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to house the worst of the worst in his own war on gangs.
Trump's administration paid Bukele $6 million to keep the Venezuelans behind bars in a move widely condemned by rights groups.
Caracas is investigating alleged crimes against humanity.
The Tren de Aragua emerged in Venezuela in 2014 and quickly spread its tentacles to other countries in Latin America and to the United States.
It started with kidnappings, robberies, drugs, prostitution and extortion, before expanding into illegal gold mining and human trafficking.
Trump declared it a terrorist organization after he returned to the White House in January.
The government in Caracas has claimed to have dismantled the gang, though its main leader Hector "Nino" Guerrero remains at large.
