The harrowing tale of Venezuelans rendered to a notorious Salvadoran prison has taken a disturbing new turn. A lawsuit filed this week in Washington DC accuses US aviation firms CSI Aviation and GlobalX of facilitating the transportation of three planes carrying Venezuelan men to El Salvador, where they were held for four months in maximum-security conditions, including allegations of torture. The civil rights violations alleged include false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and other serious abuses.
The lawsuit claims that CSI and GlobalX "went to great lengths" to facilitate these "rendition flights" to El Salvador, acting "in concert with the US government" and allegedly in violation of US and international law. In March last year, the Trump administration expelled over 230 Venezuelan men held in US immigration custody to El Salvador. These men were subsequently detained for four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a maximum-security prison where they claim to have been tortured.
According to the lawsuit, CSI and GlobalX deliberately transported the men to El Salvador despite a federal judge's order for the flights to return, and with alleged knowledge that the men would likely face torture inside Cecot. Human rights attorneys, who filed the suit on 17 July, argue that without the complicity of these two companies, the plaintiffs would not have been rendered to Cecot.
Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of advocacy and litigation for the Kennedy Human Rights Center and one of the attorneys representing the Venezuelan men, highlighted the significant involvement of private companies in alleged human rights abuses linked to the Trump administration's aggressive anti-immigrant policies. The lawsuit suggests that CSI and GlobalX, hired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have reaped "unprecedented financial profits" from these arrangements, while the Venezuelan men continue to suffer severe emotional distress.
CSI Aviation Inc, incorporated in Texas, and GlobalX, headquartered in Florida, are described in the lawsuit as playing a substantial role in the administration's mass deportation efforts. CSI is alleged to have brokered nearly all deportation flights through a multi-million-dollar contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the primary agency within the DHS responsible for deportations. The lawsuit states that CSI was the highest-value recipient of ICE contracts, with revenue from ICE totalling $1.23 billion in 2025. For the three flights to El Salvador, CSI reportedly sub-contracted with GlobalX, acting as an intermediary between ICE and GlobalX.