3mo ago

Venezuelan man disappeared to El Salvador by US immigration Gestapo after making wrong turn on bridge

www.wsws.org

Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a 32-year-old Venezuelan immigrant legally residing in the United States, has apparently been disappeared to El Salvador’s notorious Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) after mistakenly turning onto the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan.
The bridge, one of North America’s busiest international crossings, links Detroit with Windsor, Ontario. Due to the complexity of nearby highways, even local residents occasionally take the wrong ramp. For Prada, this innocent mistake led to arrest, imprisonment, and deportation—culminating in his disappearance into a foreign prison.

World News @lemmy.ml

technocrit @lemmy.dbzer0.com

3mo ago

Venezuelan man disappeared to El Salvador by US immigration Gestapo after making wrong turn on bridge

www.wsws.org /en/articles/2025/04/23/ulhi-a23.html

31 comments

The word is “kidnapped.” Not vanished, not disappeared. Kidnapped.
Language matters. Stop reporting falsities via soft language.
- Kidnapping implies isolated incidents and criminals working outside the government. Disappearing points out that the government is responsible, it's harsher language
  
  Yes, criminals kidnap.
  Governments black bag/disappear people.
  Disappearing a person has far more darker undertones, too. kidnapping, at least theres a chance there might be a ransom.
- Yes, language matters and they used it correctly here. As an intransitive verb it means that someone is not detectable. As a transitive verb it means that someone else made them disappear, which usually refers to being abducted, usually by an official group like an arm of the government.
  It has been used that way for decades to indicate when a governement kidnaps citizens to detain or kill them in secret.
  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disappear
  
  Since you’re bringing up language points, I’m wondering if you’d be willing to take a left turn with me.
  What are your thoughts about applying the phrase “extraordinary rendition” to their situation?
  I feel that it’s appropriate, but I haven’t seen anyone using it.
- Disappeared (desaparecido) is a historical term that likens the trump administration to latin american military dictatorships
  
  Thanks, didn’t know that!
  I could be extra sensitive to perceived soft language these days, so I appreciate the context.
  
  Don't even let his family name live on. That's that be wants
  Just treat him like a number and call him 45
- Ah but you see? Kidnapping is only when a criminal does it, and to be a criminal, you must be below the law. But when you are the law? Things are different.
  Sigh... I wish I was joking...
- Say it louder my friend
In Soviet America, a wrong turn takes your life.
- When we try trump and sentence him, guess where he's going? An el Salvador prison.
  
  Still think any of that is going to happen?
  
  Hell no.
  Americans should bring out the guillotine.
US immigration was unreasonably harsh and unforgiving before, but paired with the possibility to send people to a concentration camp without due process makes this fact a lot more scary. Yeah, they could get you in serious trouble for minor mistakes, but they couldn't ruin or even take your life that easily before.
- Which is why if i were a foreign tourist, i would avoid America completely.
  I suspect we'll still see some foreign tourists this summer, because they've already bought tickets and made reservations, and every place else is booked now, and it will be difficult to make last minute changes.
  There will still be a drop in foreign visitors this summer, but next summer? Foreign tourists will be almost non-existent. All we will get are those wierdos who specifically seek out dangerous places to visit, as if we are war zone.
  Who knows? Maybe by next summer we will be.
  
  As an American living in America. I want to avoid America completely.
  
  There already has been a significant drop in tourists just in the last months. If things escalate, I bet your prediction becomes entirely true.
  
  I'm Australian and there NO way I would be going anywhere near the states any time soon.
  My prediction is trump is going to mobilise Maga as a militia and you guys are headed for a full blown civil war
This is America
Wow, I’ve done that (in simpler times, and I’m white). For me it was just an expensive and time consuming mistake - I had to pay an extra toll in a currency I didn’t have. Of course they won’t convert the exact amount for the toll
Sent to a concentration camp to be tortured and possibly executed without due process for minor traffic infraction.

31 comments