WTF Weekly | El Dictador
- Tyler
- Apr 18
- 10 min read
"When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent" - Isaac Asimov
Friday, April 18, 2025
A lot has happened this week, but most of it seems to revolve around Trump wanting to deport folks who aren't white from the United States, regardless of whether they've committed a crime or not (not that doing so would allow Herr Trump to deport them). Of course, this includes shakedowns at America's universities that have immigrant students - MAGA hates the educated!
Tariff wars are still ruining our economy, too. The US is still applying a 25% tariff on imported vehicles and car parts. We still have a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, and China has imposed a 125% import on US imports. This week China ordered its airlines to stop all Boeing aircraft orders, which is about 15% of Boeing's global presence and 40% of China's airline fleets. Trump's yo-yoing on tariffs is permanently changing trade agreements as other countries no longer see the US as a reliable supplier.
So today we're primarily going to focus on deportations with some mentions from the economy, and of course as always - something positive.
El Dictador: Deporting crime-free legal residents to foreign torture prisons
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvador immigrant in Maryland who was illegally deported by Trump to CECOT, an all-male El Salvador torture prison intended primarily for gang members. Although Garcia entered the country illegally at the age of 16, in 2019, a judge granted that Garcia could stay in the United States and was not subject to deportation -- that didn't stop Trump from deporting him.
The man responsible for this torture prison (we'll call it nothing other than that) is El Salvador's dictator, Nayib Bukele, who visited the White House this week. Although outlets like Fox and Trump's cabinet members, including Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, have tried to discredit Garcia, he has never been convicted of a crime.
Despite this, Caroline Leavitt even goes so far to call him a human trafficker and foreign terrorist (LOL!). We think she's a fascist press Nazi.
Journalists in that press conference did themselves no favors by not even questioning Leavitt's unfounded line of allegations, but we already know most of them don't have spines after kneeling to administration demands to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America' and removing pronouns from their email signatures or be banished like the Associated Press was. Here's her word vomit on Garcia followed by a rebuttal of the lies:
And the rebuttal:
There is no proof Kilmar Garcia is a MS-13 gang member.
There is no crime Kilmar Garcia has committed.
Thus, he is not a foreign terrorist.
Thus, he has no crime of human trafficking.
Caroline Leavitt says it's truly striking the attention that's been shone on this case; it would be truly striking if this thin-lipped Joseph Goebbels drag queen told the truth. (No offense to drag queens who we think look better and are more truthful.)
Garcia isn't the only one. Trump has deported 238 men to CECOT, and 179 of them had no criminal record.
Trump was heard on a hot mic telling Bukele that he wanted to deport the 'homegrown ones' to CECOT, and to accommodate that increase, Bukele would need to build 5 more torture prisons. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the administration should facilitate Garcia's return to the US before he had been transferred to CECOT but after he had been deported back to El Salvador. Regardless, the administration did not intervene and in CECOT he sits.
Bukele seemed to mock that Garcia would still be held in El Salvador despite the Supreme Court's ruling. (and by the way, any human can see those are water glasses, not margaritas).
Trump tried to appeal the Supreme Court's ruling to facilitate Garcia's return. Judge Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, spoke for the three-judge panel by saying:
It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.
The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order. Moreover, the government has conceded that Abrego Garcia was wrongly or “mistakenly” deported. Why then should it not make what was wrong, right?
Let's talk a little more about CECOT
ABOUT CECOT
Designed and completed in 2023 in response to overcrowding in other El Salvador prisons.
Built to house up to 40,000 inmates.
For the “worst of the worst” gang members.
Its aim is to be a PERMANENT solution, no rehabilitation, no return to society. The justice minister bluntly stated that prisoners at CECOT will “never return to their communities.”
8 pavilions with 256 cells.
Cells house 80 - 100 men, sometimes more. 100 square meters in size.
9 guard towers, multiple layers of fencing, 24/7 surveillance.
CECOT officials refuse to disclose actual population.
DAILY REGIMEN
Total lockdown. Prisoners are confined shoulder to shoulder in their cells 23.5 hours a day.
No outdoor time whatsoever.
Fluorescent lights remain on 24 hours a day. They have no sense of time and no sleep cycle.
They receive 30 minutes a day of tightly controlled corridor exercise.
No jobs, no classes, no books, no programs of any kind. Nothing.
CCTV watches prisoners 24 hours a day
COMMUNICATION AND ISOLATION
No visits from family or lawyers.
No letters or phone calls.
All cell signal is blocked for a 1.5 mile radius.
Mass virtual trials via video link with up to 900 prisoners at a time.
Most inmates have never been formally charged or sentenced.
DISCIPLINE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL
Prisoners arrive barefoot and shackled with their heads bowed.
Forced to kneel in tight rows with their heads shaved upon arrival.
If they are to be punished, they are put into an even smaller cell that is completely dark.
Swift violence for perceived “disobedience” or breaking of any rule.
No sunlight, ever. No clocks. No time markers.
Inmates experience “profound psychological deterioration.”
Juveniles, around the age of 16, are in cells with hardened gang members.
Inmates are required to be “alert and obedient” at all times during the day.
Most sit idly. They are often required to remain silent. The rest of the time they remain mostly silent out of fear.
Some inmates have reportedly lost their voices from prolonged silence and stress.
Journalists who have been allowed in reported an atmosphere of “unnatural, tense silence.”
The guards are armed and wearing balaclavas to increase fear.
LIVING CONDITIONS
Sleep
Each cell is designed for 80 people, but often it far surpasses 100.
Inmates sleep on concrete floors without mattresses or on iron bunk tiers where they must lay across the metal slats.
Cells are so crammed full they sleep standing up or take turns laying down.
No pillows or blankets.
Food
Meals are minimal, rice and beans. Sometimes a tortilla. Sometimes an egg.
No utensils, prisoners eat with their hands.
Water is extremely limited. They share a jug within their cells.
Malnutrition is common and has been contributed to multiple deaths.
Hygiene
Each cell has 2 toilets and 2 sinks for 80+ men.
No privacy, ever. Constant filth and foul smells.
Bathing and “laundry” is done by buckets inside the cell.
Diseases are rampant. TB, scabies, fungal infections, stomach illnesses.
NO outside medical care is allowed, ever.
Over 350 inmates have died and most were due to medical conditions or abuse from guards.
If someone falls gravely ill, they are treated (if at all) in an on-site infirmary. “No prisoner ever leaves the premises alive” for medical care outside, a CECOT official told journalists, a chilling acknowledgment that even medical transfers are off the table.
ABUSE AND VIOLENCE
Much of the abuse is only recorded from President Bukeles former facility, the secrecy and lack of oversight at CECOT make all reporting difficult. Nobody comes out, and dead bodies are viewed through photos. Human rights inspectors are denied access.
Beatings by guards are common, especially upon first arrival. One man temporarily detained said he watched guards beat all new arrivals for an hour straight. When he tried to tell the guards he was wrongfully detained, they broke his ribs and threw him in a “dark hole” with 320 other men who also beat him.
Reported use of water torture and extended kneeling.
“Simulated drowning” has been repeatedly reported.
Guards often choose to humiliate. At the former CECOT facility, guards would strip inmates naked, push their faces into ice water until they nearly drowned while calling them “dogs” and “scum.”
Solitary confinement is used as punishment.
In the 350+ deaths since 2022, there were signs of asphyxiation, fractures and blunt trauma seen in photos.
Bodies are buried in mass graves, with no family notification.
Rival gangs are mixed together as punishment.
Government claims gang hierarchy is broken, reports suggest otherwise.
One of the few people ever released from CECOT said they often had to sleep and live next to the corpses of their cell mates until the guards got around to removing them.
Another man said they had to kneel for hours and if someone collapsed from exhaustion, they would “drag them out like an animal.” He said many of the men there were “not even gang members.”
LEGAL
Held without trial.
Virtually NO releases
Officials state openly they will never leave.
Many are serving decade long sentences without a trial.
The United States has sent 238 perceived Venezuelan gang members, 179 with no criminal records in the U.S. or abroad, under a $6,000,000 a year deal.
Humans rights refer to it as a “transnational penal colony” and a U.S. judge has referred to it as “wholly lawless.”
President Bukele has acknowledged that thousands of men in El Salvador prisons were “actually innocent”. Many of those men were released from those prisons, but prisoners in CECOT go through a one way door.
TESTIMONIES FROM INSIDE
CNN and CBS report that inmates sleep on concrete or bare steel.
Gang members claim it “breaks them emotionally.”
Inmates describe it as a place of “torture and death.”
Witnesses report having to sleep next to dead cell mates.
Guards claim “brutality is necessary.”
Police whistleblowers have admitted innocent men have been detained and abused.
One guard stated “they have nothing, so they have nothing to lose.”
HUMAN RIGHTS AND GLOBAL RESPONSE
Condemnation from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Inter-American Comission on Human Rights
CECOT violates Nelson Mandela Rules (UN Standard of Prisoner Treatment)
Cristosal reported 3,300 violations in the first year alone.
Human rights organizations refer to it as a “black hole for human rights”.
Suguru Onda
Another illegal deportation: Suguru Onda, doctoral student at Utah's Brigham Young University, had his visa revoked and was told to self-deport to Japan within 15 days because of his alleged criminal record...which turns out to be two speeding tickets and a dismissed fishing citation from 2019. He has a wife and five kids in the US, two of whom were born here.
Trump continues to attack Harvard
Trump froze $2.2B in grant money after Harvard refused to give up DEI programs. Now the administration is threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status and deport students for no reason other than because the administration hates higher education. Kristi Noem is demanding records on foreign students and threatens the school that she'll revoke all student visas if the school doesn't comply with that request by the end of April. Roughly a third (27%) of Harvard's student body is foreign students. Do you think attacking the nation's most prestigious university and trying to deport its non-white students makes America great? This story is spelled out in detail at the Harvard Red Crimson.
More proof Trump's a Russian asset
Trump is nominating Ed Martin, a January 6th truther who believes Trump actually won the 2020 election, as the US attorney for Washington DC. Martin has made over 150 appearances on the Russian-state news channels RT and Sputnik between 2016 and 2024. Here's an interesting interview where Ed Martin suggests that Trump's affiliation with Russia is a conspiracy and Biden was trying to start a conspiracy/war by making public the United States' collected evidence of Russia's plan to fully invade Ukraine in early February 2022. Well - who was right there? Did Russia invade Ukraine?
The treasurer agrees the economy is tanking
Jerome Powell made public statements on how Trump's tariffs have impacted the economy at the Economic Club of Chicago - and not to Trump's liking.
Apparently Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Trump that firing Jerome Powell would destabilize market even more, which is probably why he hasn't yet, but that didn't stop Trump from posting:
JD Vance makes our tariff war with China more complicated by calling their workers 'peasants'. This comes not long after he embarrassed the country with his treatment of Zelenskyy. China has responded that before any negotiations would be made, the US must apologize for that comment. We know how this administration likes to apologize...
Shaun Rein works for China Market Research Group. He highlights the permanent trade deals that have shifted a as a result of Trump:
“China is not buying American oil but is now buying Canadian oil. China is not buying American soybeans but buying Brazilian soybeans. China is not buying American Boeings but buying France's Airbuses. China is not buying American beef but buying Australian. China has decided basically not to buy anything from America and, aside from semiconductors, can easily replace American made products.”
Something Positive
The U.S. power grid is on track to achieve a new record, with clean energy sources like solar and wind projected to supply over 51% of the nation's electricity in April. This marks a significant step toward a greener energy future.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected signs of life via molecules in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b that, on Earth, are produced only by living organisms. This discovery offers intriguing possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life.
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