Venezuelan men sent last year to a notorious Salvadorian terrorism prison by the Trump administration are suing the US aviation companies that transported them there.

A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Washington DC accuses the companies CSI Aviation and GlobalX of violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations, for their role in flying the three planes that took the men to El Salvador.

CSI and GlobalX “went to great lengths” to undertake the “rendition flights” to El Salvador, “in concert with the US government, in flagrant violation of US and international law”, the lawsuit reads.

Last year, in March, the Trump administration expelled more than 230 Venezuelan men held in US immigration custody to El Salvador, where they were detained for four months in a maximum security terrorism prison and tortured.

  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
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    19 hours ago

    For the folks complaining that this is not enough.

    This is the ONLY way to stop this. Punish people who just follow orders. Punish companies just trying to get a contract. Punish officers that just pass down illegal instructions.

    Make it worse for people to follow illegal orders than to take the job.

    Fascists and billionaires aren’t actually walking around doing the illegal things, they have to find someone willing to do it. It’s very important to make it too difficult for them to find those grunts.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      13 hours ago

      And all fines and settlements START at $1 billion. These companies need to be bankrupted, so those that take their places will know where the line is, and what the consequences are.

  • axh@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    It’s like holocaust survivors suing IBM it’s far from a real justice but at least in the right direction.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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    23 hours ago

    Not exactly the accountability we’d like to see, but some justice is better than no justice. I hope these corrupt aviation companies have to pay out the ass for collaborating with fascists.

    • Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz
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      20 hours ago

      In the unfortunately unlikely event of a conviction, they’ll probably be pardoned by Trump. Even if they aren’t, it’ll just be a small cost of doing business.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        10 hours ago

        Nope. Like with E Jean Carroll, Trump can’t pardon his way out of this.

        And, once they’re done suing that company, they get to sue the us gov. Taxpayers aren’t done taking the hit for electing stupid. Whee!

      • chaospatterns@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I don’t see how trump could pardon a company in a civil suit. He’d have to get a sympathetic judge or pressure the judge presiding.

        • pikl@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Understanding how the government works doesn’t fit the narrative though.