#2 Cruelty for the sake of cruelty
Trump's administration hands out unwarranted death sentences
Venezuela has been in turmoil for many years. I am 54-years-old. One of my good friends in junior high, in the 80’s, was a Venezuelan kid named Jesus. His family had left Venezuela for a better life in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelans have done the same. Venezuelans are not monsters. Jesus was funny, warm, and a good person. I wish we were still in touch.
Imagine being in an authoritarian country where saying anything negative about the leaders can get you murdered. That is Venezuela. And now it is the United States.
A few weeks ago, Team Trump deported 238 Venezuelans, claiming that they are terrorists.
Among them: a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, being held in a place so harsh that El Salvador's justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin.
The shackled men were forced to lower their heads and bodies as they were unloaded from buses and taken to El Salvador's mega prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
Being sent to CECOT is a death sentence.
Let’s be clear about this process of murdering immigrants and refugees. First, the government of the United States snatches up people it has decided to target as persona non-grata. Then, without any due process or public transparency, the abductees are determined to be “terrorists” and deported to a third world country where they are tortured and murdered.
Right now, the people being kidnapped and murdered are brown. That could change at any moment. Are you ready for someone you love to be snatched up and disappeared? Are you ready for fascism? It is here, it is now, and it will consume anyone it wants to consume at the whims of an orange clown and his billionaire patrons.
The world is a dangerous place, and that danger is now at your doorstep. Welcome to cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Welcome to America’s “golden age.” Jesus, my old friend, I hope you’re doing OK. I hope you know I thought we were better than this.
I still believe we can be better than this. I won’t be silent.