At least the guy is still alive and healthy. For now.
Bukele still refuses to release him because fuck him in particular, but at least he's still confirmed alive.
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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alive and healthy does not include mental health
a lot of broken people are alive and healthy
Honestly, I hope we save our democracy and then do a precision air strike on just him with the sword missile.
People don't like him I'm his own country from what I'm hearing. Nobody calls him the cool dictator. These MF are giving themselves nicknames which is even more pathetic.
Sword missile:
Wow. So amazing how weak and feckless trump is. He could not, with all the executive branch, ascertain what one us senator could. And it was super easy. Barely and inconvenience.
I understand that reference!
understanding references is tight!
all US senators are able to get on a private jet and go anywhere
privilege is not an accomplishment
So can the president.
Finally a semblance of good news - confirmation of life. I'm not holding my breath that the Trump Administration will do anything to get him back, though.
Fuck trump, put him on the plane with the Senator.
What the fuck was that picture Van Hollen sent out? Like, if you only saw the photo of Garcia talking with Van Hollen at that table you would think he's totally fine and just on a vacation down there. Where was Garcia's prison uniform, the cell he was staying in, his cellmates, the armed guards escorting him, the shackles etc., any kind of stuff that might tell us how his day to day life has actually been down there? Letting the guards clean up what they've been doing to him, stick him in civilian clothes, and bring him to a fancy hotel to meet with Van Hollen was all propaganda bullshit and this senator signal boosted it.
I'm really grateful he went down there and got this meeting, but posting that misleading picture was dumb.
There were likely a few preplanned and staged pictures the Senator was allowed to take of Abrego Garcia at all. The Senator wanted to prove that he was alive.
Ugh, the fact that people are referring to these pre-planned and staged pictures as proof of anything shows the damage this did.
These pictures don't prove anything, Garcia could be dead in those pictures and they could have taken him to a goddamn taxidermist and posed him. The fact that a US lawmaker who seems to not be a fascist moron says he met with Garcia and Garcia is alive is proof, but those photos are pure bullshit that don't tell us anything and should not have been shared.
Every single photo and video from CECOT is staged. We already get a sense of what it is like in the actual prison from stories, photos, even the staged videos. It's a concentration camp, and maybe even a death camp, it's no hotel and these photos aren't fooling people on that.
The fact... says he met with Garcia and Garcia is alive is proof
Doubters would be asking for real proof left, right, and center rather than second-hand.
These pictures don't prove anything, Garcia could be dead in those pictures and they could have taken him to a goddamn taxidermist and posed him.
I don't know what you would want from the Senator. If he was talking to a stuffed corpse, once he leaves El Salvador, there's nothing stopping Sen. Van Hollen to say so or at least tell his wife in confidence.
Every single photo and video from CECOT is staged
So if Van Hollen couldn't have taken any photos or videos without the prison guards' interference that's all the more reason not to make and share sanctioned propaganda for them like these photos were.
Doubters would be asking for real proof
Again, for reasons already discussed these pictures are not proof of anything and if anything only serve to make Van Hollen's statements seem less credible and make any doubters seem more reasonable. I think I still believe him, but the gullibility displayed here by sharing this misinformation is incredible.
If he was talking to a stuffed corpse, once he leaves El Salvador, there's nothing stopping Sen. Van Hollen to say so
I guess I'm less cynical than you are, I'm willing to assume Van Hollen's statements from El Salvador weren't pure bullshit and provide proof that these photos don't, but if people are arguing that his statement was coerced somehow then we really didn't get anything at all from this trip other than a propaganda win for the fascists who are going to use these pictures to argue that CECOT isn't that bad.
I don't know what you would want from the Senator
I want him to not be duped into sharing fascists' propaganda. Going to El Salvador and meeting with Garcia and sharing a statement about that meeting and what he observed during it was good (actually, in spite of the harm he did by sharing those misleading photos I'm still grateful to the Senator just for giving Garcia a friendly face to talk to), but sharing staged photographs and not realizing that those pictures are going to be used by fascists to dispute his statements and drown out all the long boring detailed reports from human rights NGOs about conditions at this prison that the average American never reads was bad.
I think his heart was in the right place here, he just did a boneheaded thing accidentally at a time when we really need everyone to be on their A game.
e; One other thing I want from the next person who's able to secure a visit with Garcia - bring his lawyer and spouse with you so they can meet with him as well
While I'm not sure how you came to all the conclusions you did, your advice for the next person who might try to get in contact with the next person at CECOT is sound.
Fuck you Chris Van Hollen for making a trip just to get votes later and if that is not the case then why the fuck could not just have given a ride
Sure that private jet you flew in on had the space and bet your in flight meal is better than his gulag soup
Want to see a politician that really goes the extra fucking mile and stays the fuck there until they leave with him
Keyboard warrior strikes again!
yes because in our downtime from defending democracy we activists use a keyboard
even in our free time we still do not give up dreaming
Mom's basement bunker defends against all kinds of threats, including inclement weather, rabid dogs and not the least of all, internet blowback!
You're calling the kettle black in the middle of the cookware aisle here, we're all "keyboard warriors," you just don't like this one's opinion
Why should he try to smuggle him back into the country? According to the situation, Garcia is officially in Salvadorian custody. An operation like this affords more sensitivity.
I am sure Van Hollen has already made plans for Garcias return, and surely that's what they have been talking about. But this needs to be decided in court or achieved by lawyers.
If nothing happens from now on, okay then fuck him
To be honest, I half hope another country sends in an extraction team to get him out and then offers him and his family asylum. It probably won't happen, but I can dream.
I have not yet thought about the realistic outcome. Would it be possible for him to return on a court order from another US state, against the will of the white house?
I guess the fact that he's in the spotlight right now does not help his situation. Bukele probably doesn't want to lose his face either.
A third country solution might be his best option.
“Against the will of the White House”
I hope the judiciary FUCKS Trump over this behavior.
typical Democrat response
but we talked and made plans to talk more and make more plans and we would do more but Republicans
apathetic but appear to be actively doing something about it while appearing to care when in reality your thumbs are so deep in shit the smell and the stains will never go away
To be honest, I don't understand your aggressive tone. Just tell me, what exactly would YOU do?
I don't understand your aggressive tone
I can understand people being furious about seeing the progress fascism is making in our country. I think the aggression is a bit misdirected in this particular case, but I get it.
If he'd tried to forcibly secure Garcia's release that would very likely set off an insane chain of consequences we haven't made adequate preparations for. Like, if nothing else, Van Hollen would be a fugitive from the American government at that point because there's no way any American court would let a Senator start doing commander in chief stuff like that.
Want to see a politician that really goes the extra fucking mile and stays the fuck there until they leave with him
I tend to agree, but we need all the votes in the US Senate we can get right now, so I think Van Hollen's a bad person to do this. A quick online search tells me there's a decent margin in the Maryland state Senate though, so one of those lawmakers could camp down there and keep pushing this.
The biggest news out of this meeting is that Sen. Van Hollen reports that Abrego Garcia was transferred out of CECOT to another prison last week:
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia said he had been “traumatized” by being at El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, and fearful of detainees in other cell blocks “who called out to him and taunted him in various ways.”
Abrego Garcia said he was transferred last week to a different detention center with better conditions, but still had no ability to communicate with anyone outside the facility, the senator said.
The public pressure on this is working. The mere fact that Bukele felt the need to try to stage a photo op by the swimming pool of a luxury hotel means that he cares about appearances. Let's keep the pressure on.