Month: April 2025

What must, and can we do?

…else, lose our humanity.
I think this is important. When we see someone in paint, ill, or injured, we’re called on to–a minimum–ask if we can help, and do so, if we can.
To turn away, diminishes who and what we are at the core of our being. This is way it matters, what and how we respond to the suffering we see everywhere around us. We are as no less diminished by turning away, and pretending to ignore the suffering we see happening on the other side of the world, than we would be if we did so to our own child, friend or parent, but it’s anything but clear what we can should do.
I’m old, and partly disabled. There’s not a wide range of choices within my limited abilities. This has been a source of anguish for me, as I am sure it true for many others. I’ve begun taking an hour or two to sit each afternoon with a sign at an intersection of the Penn and Drexel campuses. A small, insignificant thing–more gesture than action, but it has changed me–changed how I feel my place in this historical moment, and I’ve begun to notice more the response of those who pass by, of the few who stop to talk, or offer furtive–almost secret smiles, of recognition.
What any one us are able to do will be conditioned by individual circumstances, by who we are… but through the power of imagination, we can and mus responds. To remain silent, to turn away–is to wish up ourselves, our own death… the death of our humanity.

Environmental Crisis

It gets worse…
Curtis Mahon

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To my many friends who thought it wouldn’t happen, guess what, it has happened! Donald Trump has dropped the environmental destruction nuke of an EO, planning to sunset ALL environmental regulations made in the last 100 years. And I mean ALL. https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/zero-based-regulatory…/

The Endangered Species Act. Gone. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Gone. The Marine Mammal Protection Act. Gone. The Anadromous Fish Conservation Act. Gone. The Bald Eagle Protection Act. Gone! You name it, it’s gone.

To remind those friends why we have these laws, I’m going to try to put them into terms which anyone can understand, money.

The Endangered Species Act is literally the founding, central pillar of modern conservation globally. It’s hard to list the accomplishments of this act as it is so vast. It directly protects and calls for plans to raise the populations of rare species. It’s directly responsible for the comeback of many iconic species, such as the Bald Eagle, the Peregrine Falcon, the California Condor, and a host of others. Talk about return on investment, the amount of money spent vs the amount gained from people wishing to just see iconic rare species is in the billions of dollars. For what would a visit to the grand canyon be without seeing a conder soar over or a visit to Yellowstone without seeing wolves and bison. People do whole drives across the country just for these experiences and that’s what the ESA is about. Lots of revenue there.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was one of the first environmental laws every made, and bans the harm or collection of all non-game birds in America. It was implemented in a time when hunters we shooting everything to turn them into hats, from songbirds to puffins to herons to albatross. The banning of this and subsequent restoration efforts lead to dramatic increases in bird populations and continue to protect them from harm. In just one example, consider a puffin. In Maine, every tourist I talk to wants to see two things, lobster and puffins. They were once hunted to near extinction in the US and are now a central pillar to the economy of an ENTIRE STATE. Thousands of people a DAY take expensive boat trips for puffins and that’s at risk without these regulations, not to mention cuts to NOAA.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act protects whales from being killed or harmed and lead to the global war on whaling. Now because of it, America watches whales! You can go on a whale watch in nearly every coastal city in America and it generates HUNDREDS of millions of dollars in tourism and employs thousands of people. We hurt whales, we hurt our pockets and jobs.

The Anadromous Fish Conservation Act allows the government to enter agreements with states and plan and fund ways to increase the populations of migratory fish. It has direct benefits to anglers across the country, funding 50% of initiatives for things like stocking and habitat restoration in major fisheries such as both Atlantic and Pacific Salmon, Trout, Striped Bass, American Shad, and Sturgeon.

And removing the Bald Eagle Protection Act! I thought we loved eagle guys? What’s more American than a Bald Eagle, and they want to remove protections for them? Many older Americans can probably remember a time when they never saw Bald Eagles. Now you can see them commonly in nearly every state! That’s a direct result of the Endangered Species Act and Bald Eagle Protection Act.

These are just a few of the laws the Republican party wishes to remove. All have proven track records of benefiting Americans, both monetarily through supporting major American industries worth billions of dollars and employing hundreds of thousands of Americans and spiritually as corner stones of the country’s wilderness. The removal of these protections is peak short term gains over long term profits.

If you don’t like it, there’s a lot you can do. Call your representatives. It feels like yelling to void but we’ve seen a handful of senators pushed to action by your voices. This matters regardless of the political party of your representatives. Also, get out and protest if you can. The next big one is April 19th. Search for your local 50501 group to see where the protests were at. It’s incredibly empowering to get out and be a part of a movement with thousands of people in your town, and millions nationwide. See you in the streets

Resisting End time Fascism.

If we are to meet our critical moment in history, we need to reckon with the reality that we are not up against adversaries we have seen before. We are up against end times fascism.

Reflecting on his childhood under Mussolini, the novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco observed in a celebrated essay that fascism typically has an “Armageddon complex” – a fixation on vanquishing enemies in a grand final battle. But European fascism of the 1930s and 1940s also had a horizon: a vision for a future golden age after the bloodbath that, for its in-group, would be peaceful, pastoral and purified. Not today.

Alive to our era of genuine existential danger – from climate breakdown to nuclear war to sky-rocketing inequality and unregulated AI – but financially and ideologically committed to deepening those threats, contemporary far-right movements lack any credible vision for a hopeful future. The average voter is offered only remixes of a bygone past, alongside the sadistic pleasures of dominance over an ever-expanding assemblage of dehumanized others.

And so we have the Trump administration’s dedication to releasing its steady stream of real and AI-generated propaganda designed solely for these pornographic purposes. Footage of shackled immigrants being loaded on to deportation flights, set to the sounds of clanking chains and locking cuffs, which the official White House X account labeled “ASMR”, a reference to audio designed to calm the nervous system. Or the same account sharing news of the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a US permanent resident who was active in Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment, with the gloating words: “SHALOM, MAHMOUD.” Or any number of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s sadism-chic photo ops (atop a horse at the US-Mexican border, in front of a crowded prison cell in El Salvador, slinging a machine gun while arresting immigrants in Arizona …).

The governing ideology of the far right in our age of escalating disasters has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism.

It is terrifying in its wickedness, yes. But it also opens up powerful possibilities for resistance. To bet against the future on this scale – to bank on your bunker – is to betray, on the most basic level, our duties to one another, to the children we love, and to every other life form with whom we share a planetary home. This is a belief system that is genocidal at its core and treasonous to the wonder and beauty of this world. We are convinced that the more people understand the extent to which the right has succumbed to the Armageddon complex, the more they will be willing to fight back, realizing that absolutely everything is now on the line.

Our opponents know full well that we are entering an age of emergency, but have responded by embracing lethal yet self-serving delusions. Having bought into various apartheid fantasies of bunkered safety, they are choosing to let the Earth burn. Our task is to build a wide and deep movement, as spiritual as it is political, strong enough to stop these unhinged traitors. A movement rooted in a steadfast commitment to one another, across our many differences and divides, and to this miraculous, singular planet.

CECOT share awareness

From Suzy Subways on Facebook
No sunlight, no outdoor time, no beds or cots, no letters or phone calls, no books, no outside medical care, no charges or trial, no hope for release. Beatings and torture as the rule. Sleeping on concrete next to the dead. Does it really matter which of these people are innocent? Does anyone belong here?

Zann Zsuzsannika is with Antonia Eden Dana.

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Okay, let’s get into Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the prison in El Salvador where the Trump admin is sending men that they believe are “in gangs”, with no due process.

I’d like to start by saying, we found out yesterday that of the 238 men that Trump has sent to CECOT, 179 of the men have NO criminal record, here or abroad. Please let that register before you continue reading. No. Criminal. Record. Whatsoever. 75% have clearer backgrounds than a lot of the people you know. The names of possibly innocent men are towards the bottom of this post.

I’m going to try to break this down in easy to understand sections. Please forgive me if I’m repetitive.

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.

+ 19 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 like “silent Gods.”

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 makes all reporting difficult. Nobody comes out, and dead bodies are viewed through photos. Human rights inspectors are denied access.

+ Beating 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”.

Some things I’d like to add:

+ Our country has sent innocent men here, we already know that. Some for tattoos that they misunderstood, some from “administrative errors”, some have been swept up simply for being neighbors, family or friends of the “perceived gang members.”

+ These men go into CECOT knowing they will never see or hear from their families again. Imagine being innocent?

+ Is this what you really wanted, MAGA? Do you think Jesus thinks this treatment of his children is ok? Or do you understand human rights exist for a reason? What does your gut tell you? If you know this is wrong, please help us. Please get involved. He didn’t tell you he was going to do this, you didn’t vote for this cruelty. The best time to do the right thing was the election, but the second best time is right now. Use your voice.

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NAMES OF MEN WHO MAY BE WRONGFULLY INCARCERATED AT CECOT

The names of the men we need to push to get back or at minimum, due process:

+ Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in March 2025. Despite a 2019 U.S. immigration judge’s order protecting him from removal due to credible fears of gang persecution, Abrego Garcia was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 12, 2025, during a routine check-in. He was subsequently deported on March 15, with the Trump administration later acknowledging the action as an “administrative error.”

+ Andry José Hernández Romero: A 31-year-old gay Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the U.S., Hernández Romero was deported based on tattoos interpreted as gang symbols. His attorney clarified that these tattoos were religious and cultural symbols common in his hometown. Despite having no criminal record and a credible asylum claim, he was sent to CECOT, where concerns for his safety have been raised due to his sexual orientation and the prison’s notorious conditions.

+ Jose Franco Caraballo Tiapa: A barber who entered the U.S. seeking asylum, Caraballo was detained after an immigration officer noticed a tattoo of a clock on his arm, symbolizing the time of his daughter’s birth—a common design in Venezuela. Despite lacking a criminal record and having a pending asylum case, he was deported to CECOT under allegations of gang affiliation.

+ Jerce Reyes Barrios: A 35-year-old former professional soccer player from Venezuela, Barrios fled persecution and sought asylum in the U.S. He was detained and deported due to tattoos, including one resembling the Real Madrid logo, which authorities misinterpreted as gang-related. Despite providing evidence of his innocence and lack of criminal history, he was sent to CECOT.

+ E.M.: Identified only by initials for safety, E.M. fled Venezuela with his girlfriend and was granted refugee status in the U.S. He was detained and deported based on tattoos of a crown, soccer ball, and palm tree, common symbols in Venezuelan culture. His family was not informed of his deportation and later discovered his fate through media reports.

+ Francisco Javier García Casique: A 24-year-old Venezuelan hairdresser, García was deported and featured in a Salvadoran government video showcasing shackled prisoners. His family and advocates assert he has no gang affiliations and was wrongfully detained based on superficial indicators like tattoos.

+ Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez: a Venezuelan national, was deported despite having no criminal record. He was apprehended during a routine immigration check-in, with authorities citing alleged gang affiliations based on superficial indicators. He is currently detained in CECOT, with ongoing legal efforts seeking his return.

+ Jhon Chacin: a Venezuelan tattoo artist, sought asylum in the U.S. After his asylum application was denied, he agreed to voluntary deportation to Venezuela. However, his flight was rerouted, and he was instead sent to CECOT in El Salvador. Chacin remains imprisoned in CECOT, with his family and legal representatives advocating for his release.

+ Maiker Espinoza Escalona: Espinoza Escalona was detained by U.S. authorities and held at Guantanamo Bay before his deportation. Despite legal challenges and a court order prohibiting such deportations, he was sent to CECOT on March 17, 2025. He is currently incarcerated in CECOT, with limited information available about his well-being.

HOW TO HELP

+ Raise Public Awareness

• Speak out on social media

• Share the stories of men like Andry José Hernández Romero and Jose Caraballo Tiapa, whose cases highlight the injustice and lack of due process.

• Tag journalists, members of Congress, and human rights organizations when sharing posts to increase visibility.

+ Contact Your Representatives

If you’re in the U.S. (or another democratic country), contact your elected officials and ask them to:

•Demand accountability for wrongful deportations, especially of asylum seekers.

• Pressure the State Department to work with El Salvador for the release of innocent detainees.

• Support oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

You can use sample language like:

“I’m calling to express deep concern about the deportation of Venezuelan asylum seekers to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, where many are held without charges under abusive conditions. I urge you to call for their return and an investigation into this violation of due process.”

+ Support Legal and Human Rights Groups

Donate to or volunteer with organizations that are actively working on these issues:

• Human Rights Watch (HRW)

• Amnesty International

• ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project

• RAICES

• Cristosal (El Salvador-based human rights org)

• International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

These groups can:

• Help mount legal cases.

• Collect testimonies.

• Apply international pressure.

• Assist families of the detained.

+ Engage Media and Petition Platforms

• Start or sign petitions demanding that the U.S. and Salvadoran governments release innocent detainees from CECOT.

• Share firsthand accounts, where available, to humanize the crisis and move it out of the “policy” category and into the public conscience.

+ Pressure International Bodies

• Write to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or the United Nations Human Rights Council.

• Demand they investigate abuses in CECOT and intervene diplomatically.

• Urge them to monitor deportations from the U.S. for violations of international refugee law.

+ Connect with Families and Survivors

• If you’re able, amplify the voices of affected families, especially those with loved ones trapped in CECOT.

• Many are already speaking out through platforms like CBS News, The Guardian, and El País, reaching out or supporting those efforts can magnify impact.

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