A gay makeup artist from Venezuela who entered the U.S. legally last year only to be deported to El Salvador’s notorious prison for gang members in March says he was sexually assaulted by guards during his 125-day stay, according to a harrowing account he shared with The Washington Post.
Andry Hernández, whose brutal journey through the U.S. immigration system has been widely documented by the media and human rights groups, says that prison officers at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, took him to an isolation cell, where four officers put their clubs between his legs and one forced him to perform oral sex on him.
“It’s a nightmare. I thought it would never end,” Hernández said of his time in CECOT upon returning to Venezuela last month as part of an international prison swap.
The crime he was being punished for was bathing in an attempt to cool down.
Hernández, now 32, entered the U.S. legally last year with an immigration appointment, and a U.S. border agent at the California crossing determined he had credible fear of persecution as a gay man living in Venezuela. But he was immediately detained in a migration center, still run by the Biden administration, and questioned because of his snake and crown tattoos, which U.S. authorities have linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
