Julie Turkewitz

So they talk about asking for medical care following these injuries.

And some of them were eventually taken to an infirmary.

The man with the bullet in his leg, for example, talks about it being removed without any kind of anesthesia.

And Luis describes how after this attempted rebellion, what really happens is there is a sort of new wave of punishment and repression inside the prison.

And what does that look like?

So there is an isolation room in the prison that the men spoke to us about.

And these men say that the island is really the place where some of the most depraved acts occurred.

Luis speaks about experiencing punishment that included having his head dunked in water as if the guards were attempting to drown him.

And, you know, this is pretty graphic for some of our listeners, but one of the inmates talks about being taken there alone by several of the guards wearing hoods who forced him to perform oral sex in this space.

These men are denied access to the people they want to speak to.

During this entire period, they receive two important visits, one from Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, and from the Red Cross, which speaks to them, interviews them, and delivers a report to the government of El Salvador, but never makes that report public.

We don't know what Kristi Noem heard while she was inside the prison.

What we know is that these men felt so powerless that several of them began to contemplate suicide.

Luis is one of these men.

He had heard inside the prison that if one person died, maybe all of them would be able to go free.

And he gets a sheet.

He gets up on one of the beds.

And he indicates to his fellow inmates that he's going to hang himself.

And they pull him down.

He said, were it not for these men, mis compañeros, I would not be here today telling you the story that I'm telling you.