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Venezuelan migrants reunite with families after months in prison
Cape Argus
|July 25, 2025
MAKEUP artist and hairstylist Andry Hernandez arrived back in his hometown in the Venezuelan Andes this week after spending four months in a Salvadoran maximum security prison, where he claimed he endured sexual abuse.
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Hernandez, 33, is one of 252 Venezuelan migrants swept up in US President Donald Trump's immigration dragnet and sent without trial to El Salvador, where they were held at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) after being accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
Hernandez and the other migrants were returned to Venezuela last Friday, the result of a prisoner exchange which saw Caracas hand over 10 US citizens and permanent residents to Washington.
Hernandez arrived in Capacho, in the western state of Tachira on the Colombian border, in a National Guard SUV.
From the rear window, he waved to a crowd of family, friends and neighbours who welcomed him with celebratory shouts.
"Andry, Andry, Andry," they chanted as he jumped out of the vehicle and embraced his visibly emotional parents.
This story is from the July 25, 2025 edition of Cape Argus.
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