Capacho (Venezuela) (AFP) – Hugs, tears, and cheers greeted makeup artist Andry Hernandez on a joyous return home to the Venezuelan Andes on Wednesday — ending a months-long ordeal involving US deportation, a notorious El Salvador jail, and alleged sexual abuse. The 33-year-old was one of 252 Venezuelan migrants swept up in US President Donald Trump’s immigration dragnet and sent without trial to El Salvador last March. Hernandez has spent the last four months incommunicado at El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. He and the rest of the men were returned to Venezuela on Friday as part of an exchange for 10 US citizens and permanent residents who were held in Venezuela.
As Hernandez drove into his tiny hometown of Capacho, on the rugged southwestern border with Colombia, he was met by elated family members, who for months knew nothing of his fate. A small crowd chanted “Andry, Andry, Andry,” as he jumped out of the vehicle and embraced his overjoyed parents, who were sobbing with relief. Hernandez had left for the United States in 2024, hoping for a better life free of the discrimination faced by Venezuela’s LGBTQ community. “I left my home with a suitcase full of dreams, with dreams of helping my people, of helping my family,” he told reporters. Instead, Hernandez said he got “a nightmare that I thought would never end.”
US authorities had claimed that the crown tattoos on his wrists were “evidence” he belonged to Tren de Aragua, something that Hernandez and his family fervently denied. “Thank you for all the love you have for me and for showing me that I was never alone, that I was never alone in that maximum-security prison,” he said. His case was closely followed by international human rights organizations. Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab released a video in which Hernandez said he had been sexually abused by CECOT prison guards.
– ‘Every night I prayed’ – The tearful homecoming was echoed in villages and towns across Venezuela on Wednesday, as the former CECOT detainees returned home after days in the capital, Caracas. In the working-class neighborhood of Maracaibo, a throng of people gave thanks for the return of four friends released from El Salvador. Edwuar Hernandez, Ringo Rincon, Andy Perozo, and Mervin Yamarte were welcomed with waving flags, spraying foam, and blowing horns. With his arms outstretched and his eyes lifted to the sky, Yamarte thanked God for his freedom. “Thank you, Father God,” he whispered through tears, standing beside his former prison companions.
A tearful Hernandez recalled the pain of his ordeal. “I thought I was never going to get out of there,” he said. The relief of his mother Yarelis was palpable. “Every night I prayed to God that he would give me at least a glimpse of him in my dreams,” she said, adding that “the days went on forever.” “I don’t wish it on any mother.”
© 2024 AFP
