UPDATE, 5:30 p.m.: CBS confirmed Sunday evening that it would air the story it abruptly pulled last month on Venezuelan deportees in a high-security prison in El Salvador. In an email, the network shared the following logline:
INSIDE CECOT – Last year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This unusual move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and ten months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT. Oriana Zill de Granados is the producer.
PREVIOUSLY:
The “60 Minutes” segment abruptly pulled late last month by new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss examining the detention of Venezuelan men deported from the U.S. to a high-security prison in El Salvador was being prepped to air Sunday night, according to sources who spoke with CNN.
The segment, titled “Inside CECOT,” focuses on the Terrorism Confinement Center, a massive prison built by El Salvador’s government and used to hold deportees and alleged gang members. Produced by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, the segment was originally slated to air the Sunday before Christmas.
But Weiss shelved the segment and asked for additional reporting, including on-the-record from the Trump administration in particular. As TheWrap reported earlier this month, she met with top “60 Minutes” brass and said at the time she was willing to revisit it.
CNN “Reliable Sources” editor Brian Stelter reported Sunday that the segment was approved for the evening broadcast, citing sources with knowledge of the plans, which were “still not 100% official … but the finishing touches are being made this morning.” CBS had not yet announced the “60 Minutes” lineup and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The delay prompted internal friction at CBS News. Alfonsi wrote in a Dec. 21 internal memo alleging “corporate censorship,” stating that the segment had already been fact-checked, legally vetted and delivered to a Canadian broadcaster that re-airs “60 Minutes.” A version of that Canadian broadcast later leaked online.
Weiss and her producers personally sought interviews with officials from the Trump administration, which carried out the deportations. Alfonsi and other producers traveled to Washington in hopes of securing an interview with with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem or border czar Tom Homan, but none was granted.
CNN reported that management had sought to exhaust all avenues for response to strengthen the report. Others argued that delaying the broadcast risked allowing federal officials to block coverage.
