Venezuela-hired lawyers file plea in El Salvador to free Venezuelans deported by US

    San Salvador, Mar 25 (AP) Lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed legal action on Monday in El Salvador aimed at freeing the 238 Venezuelans deported by the United States who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
    Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned Venezuelans, said they filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court's constitutional chamber. He said by extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
    The maneuver essentially compels the government to prove someone's detention was justified.
    The Salvadoran government has been silent about the status of the Venezuelan prisoners since the US government sent them more than a week ago, despite a US federal judge's verbal order to turn the planes around.
    The Trump administration is using an 18th-century wartime law to justify sending the Venezuelans, who, it says, were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which the administration declared an invading force. (AP) ARI

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)