El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has released a video highlight reel showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia apparently thriving during his imprisonment, in an attempt to refute the migrant’s claims that he was tortured while in custody. (fox News; @nayibbukele)
ABREGO GARCIA SAYS HE ENDURED BEATINGS, TORTURE IN SALVADORAN PRISON AHEAD OF CRIMINAL TRIAL
But Bukele pushed back against those claims on Thursday, claiming he actually put on weight and released video evidence to refute claims of torture.
The video shows Abrego Garcia in seemingly good spirits, playing chess and soccer, working out with fellow inmates, doing gardening and relaxing while watching a widescreen television in his cell, among other leisurely activities.
"If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?" Bukele wrote on X. "Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?"
President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, April 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)
Hundreds of people have died in the El Salvador prisons, according to the Associated Press, citing human rights groups, which have also documented cases of torture and deteriorated conditions.
Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland after coming to the U.S. illegally, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025. He became a prominent face of the Democrats' resistance to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
The Trump administration accuses them of being an MS-13 gang member, a human trafficker and a serial domestic abuser amid police reports by his wife that he used violence against her.
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office holding a photo of the tattoos on Abrego Garcia's knuckles that the White House says are affiliated with the MS-13 terrorist group. (Donald Trump TRUTH Social)
Abrego Garcia's lawyers claimed when he arrived at the prison he was immediately frog-marched to his cell by prison guards, who kicked him with boots and struck him with wooden batons along the way, leaving visible bumps and bruises across his body.
He and other detainees in the cell slept on metal mattresses, with minimal access to food and satiation. They were also forced to kneel for approximately nine hours, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., "with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion," per the filings.
They claim he was also psychologically tortured and received threats of violence during his time at CECOT where prison guards repeatedly told him they would transfer him to other prison cells housing violent gang members, whom they assured him would "tear" him apart.
Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bukele-mocks-abrego-garcias-torture-claims-prison-highlight-reel