Willy Chavarria condemned the inhumane conditions endured by migrants detained at Salvadoran prisons.

During Paris Fashion Week, U.S. designer Willy Chavarria, who is of Chicano descent, unveiled his Spring/Summer 2026 collection titled “Huron SS26,” an artistic statement with a clear political message.

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Through his collection, Chavarria condemned the inhumane conditions endured by migrants detained at El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), the mega-prison built under the state of exception declared by President Nayib Bukele.

The runway show took place Friday in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Models dressed entirely in white and kneeling on stage symbolized the migrants expelled by the United States to El Salvador, where they are being held at CECOT.

The collection received mixed reactions. For human rights advocates, Huron SS26 served as a powerful indictment of the dehumanization embedded in prison systems. Organizations like the ACLU used the fashion show to highlight reports of overcrowding, torture, and abuse in Salvadoran prisons.

The text reads, “People upset about the Willy Chavarria fashion show in Paris only reveal how deeply racist and classist they are. What bothers them more? That fashion denounces the brutal punitivism of ICE or that it reminds us that prisons are not tools of justice but colonial instruments of control?”

Despite documentation by international organizations and media outlets, those reports have been ignored by the Salvadoran government, which maintains the state of exception as a key component of its national security strategy.

Human rights groups have sharply criticized the detention of the Venezuelan migrants at CECOT, whom former U.S. President Donald Trump has accused—without providing evidence—of allegedly belonging to the criminal organization Aragua Train.

Supporters of the Bukele administration, on the other hand, viewed the fashion show as glorifying crime. Government officials mocked the performance, suggesting that the detainees be sent to France instead.

“This is the result of glorifying criminals in Paris. He who forgives the wolf sacrifices the sheep,” Bukele posted on X. His post was later reposted by billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, Tesla, and SpaceX.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: La Voz de la Diaspora

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