“When you get there, you already know you're in hell,” Luis Muñoz Pinto says of El Salvador’s CECOT, a notorious maximum-security prison. Muñoz Pinto says he was held in prison for months despite having no criminal record and never entering the U.S. illegally. He was detained during his interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He was one of 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT between March and April of 2025. The White House claimed the men were part of a violent gang and designated them as terrorists. Arriving at CECOT, Muñoz Pinto says, “Four guards grabbed me. And they beat me until I bled, to the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall; that was when they broke one of my teeth.” The Department of Homeland Security declined 60 Minutes' request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador. The government there did not respond to our request. #elsavador #ice #deportation #prison #cecot