'I'm free now': Venezuelans held in El Salvador reunite with families

Straits Times

5 days ago

Arturo Suarez, who was held for months in an El Salvador prison after the U.S. alleged he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, embraces family members after his release, in Caracas, Venezuela July 22, 2025. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
CARACAS/VALENCIA/CAPACHO - A singer and a barber were among the former Venezuelan migrants who returned to their families on Tuesday, after spending months detained in a notorious prison in El Salvador before being sent back to Venezuela last week.
Singer Arturo Suarez was greeted with hugs and tears in working-class El Valle, south of capital Caracas, by his sister, aunt and cousins. He later wiped away tears as he spoke to his wife and daughter, who live in Chile, via video call.
"I'm free now, thank God, at last," said Suarez, who was arrested in February in North Carolina while filming a music video. He serenaded a crowd gathered in his family's living room. "I still can't believe it."
The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the United States in March, after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without normal immigration procedures.
The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration. Families and lawyers of many of the men have denied they have gang ties.
His wife has said Suarez had gone to the U.S. to boost his emerging music career and that he denied being a member of Tren de Aragua.
"I thought of my daughter, I thought of my wife, of my siblings, of my family, I asked for strength to not give up, to not allow myself to die," Suarez told journalists about his detention. "I didn't - because I'm tough, I'm a Venezuelan."
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Suarez and the other detainees deported to El Salvador from the U.S. were returned to Venezuela on Friday in a prisoner exchange. Since arriving, they have been undergoing medical checks and interviews with officials.
Two brothers - Darwin Hernandez, a 30-year-old barber, and 23-year-old house painter Yeison Hernandez - were arrested alongside Suarez in February. They arrived home to their parents and other family members in central Valencia on Tuesday.
"I asked God only for freedom, but more than anything that my family also be alive, to be able to leave and be with them like we are now," said Darwin Hernandez, a husband and a father to a six-year-old daughter.
ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
Suarez and Hernandez both said guards at the CECOT prison told detainees they would only leave dead, and Suarez said some detainees considered suicide.
Their comments tallied with other allegations of abuse made by former prisoners in videos broadcast on state television, including during a program with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday night.
Venezuela's attorney general said on Monday his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other top officials over the alleged abuse.
Bukele's office did not respond to requests for comment on the alleged torture, but he said on social media late on Monday that the Maduro government was "indignant" because they realized they no longer held "hostages from the most powerful country in the world," - a reference to ten Americans formerly held in Venezuela who were freed under the deal.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, State Department and White House did not immediately respond to comment requests.
Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the abuse allegations.
Eighty Venezuelan prisoners - including opposition politicians - held within Venezuela are also supposed to be released in the swap. Judicial NGO Foro Penal said on Monday it had verified 48 releases.
The Venezuelan opposition has regularly critiqued the Maduro government for holding activists and others in abusive conditions within Venezuela.
Andry Hernandez, a gay make-up artist who was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, had an active asylum case when he was deported to CECOT. The U.S. alleged gang membership based on his tattoos.
His parents were anxiously awaiting him in Capacho, near the Colombian border, on Tuesday.
"All this time I've slept badly. My wife would serve me a plate of food and I would wonder 'is he eating?'" said Hernandez's father Felipe.
Hernandez, who said he suffered sexual abuse at CECOT in a video broadcast on state television on Monday, was able to call his parents to say he was on his way.
His mother, Alexi Romero, says she told him she is waiting with open arms. REUTERS