Singer Arturo Suarez held in El Salvador mega jail after US thought TATTOO was gang sign, bro says amid Trump crackdown

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SINGER Arturo Suarez was arrested and deported to El Salvador’s mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on alleged gang members.

After being missing for weeks, the musician was spotted in a photo among shackled Venezuelans with skinheads.

Arturo Suarez, wrongly deported to El Salvador.

Critics say tattoos like Suarez’ are being used as the basis for accusations of Venezuelan gang membership[/caption]

Salvadoran police officers escorting handcuffed gang members in a prison.

Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua[/caption]

Arturo Suarez, wrongly deported to El Salvador, singing into a microphone.

Arturo Suarez singing before authorities deported him to a mega-prison in El Salvador[/caption]

His family believes the only reason he is behind bars is that his tattoos were mistakenly interpreted as gang symbols.

Originally from Venezuela, Arturo Suarez, 33, had entered the US through legal channels and was waiting for his asylum claim to be processed.

But the US government alleges that Suarez, like the other deported Venezuelans, is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela.

Suarez is currently detained in Bukele’s notoriously nightmarish Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.

The jail, which opened in 2023 as part of the Salvadoran brutal gang crackdown, is known for its inhumane conditions.

The singer’s brother, Nelson Suarez, told Sky News that his brother has never faced trial or committed any crime.

Indeed, he showed documents proving that his brother had no criminal record in all four countries that he has lived in – Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and the US.

Nelson said his brother’s only “crime” is being Venezuelan and having tattoos.

“You can see the hummingbird tattoo on his neck,” Nelson told Sky News, pointing to the picture of shaved inmates’ heads by which his family claim to have identified him.

Handout image of handcuffed alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Suarez’ family think that he is the third man in line closest to the camera with his tattoo circled, in a photo showing alleged members of the Tren de Aragua recently deported by the US government[/caption]

Alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua sit on the floor in a prison.

Alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recently deported by the US government to be imprisoned in CECOT[/caption]

Nelson said his brother wanted a hummingbird in memory of their late mother.

Suarez, he says, has 33 tattoos in total, including a piano, poems and verses from the Bible.

According to the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” document given to immigration officers, there is a point-based system to determine if an immigrant in custody “may be validated” as a gang member.

Tattoos that fall under a “symbolism” category score four points, according to the document, with the most suspicious including crowns, stars and the Michael Jordan Jumpman logo.

Migrants who score six points and more may then be deemed members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Suarez’ nightmare began one day while he was making a music video with Darwin Hernandez, a barber, and Hernandez’s brother, according to Darwin Hernandez’s wife Aida Diaz.

Suddenly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided the house in North Carolina where the men were playing music.

Officers arrested both Suarez and Hernandez on February 8, and they have not been seen by their families since.

Paola Paiva, Suarez’s sister, told Reuters how concerned his family is by his arbitrary arrest and deportation.

“Due process needs to be carried out,” said Paiva. “We don’t know what is happening to him. This is practically a kidnapping. We haven’t heard any news of my brother for 16 days.”

Fernandez’ wife Diaz said her husband told her before he was deported that he had been asked to sign a paper which wrote that he was a member of Tren de Aragua.

Although he marked ‘no’, Diaz soon saw his name on a list of those deported to El Salvador, which was released by CBS.

As in Suarez’ situation, Diaz told Reuters that Hernandez had no criminal record in any country – a claim that Reuters verified as true in Venezuela but could not independently verify beyond that.

An ICE official said in a sworn statement last month that many of the men arrested and deported did not have US criminal records.

American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said a week ago that the men sent to CECOT include “murderers and rapists” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs – labelled by the Trump administration as foreign terrorists.

Trump’s administration has invoked a 227-year-old law, the Alien Enemies Act, to target Tren de Aragua and is paying El Salvador to take in illegal migrants linked to the gang.

This comes as Trump’s Home Secretary Kristi Noem was filmed touring the CECOT.

In the video, Noem warned criminals who are thinking of coming to the US on Monday.

She said: “We are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking of coming to America illegally, don’t do it. You are not welcome.”

She met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shortly after the tour to discuss increasing the amount of US deportees bound for the infamous cell.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bukele struck a deal to house Tren de Aragua deportees at CECOT in February.

Rubio said that El Salvador is charging the US a “relatively low” fee for the brutal barracks, but the exact cost has not been disclosed.

CECOT is located 47 miles south of El Salvador’s capital city San Salvador.

It was opened in 2023 as Bukele launched a huge offensive against a surging wave of organized crime in his country.

Inmates are known to spend 23 and a half hours a day in stuffy cells that hold up to 70 people.

Homeland Security Secretary speaking in front of incarcerated gang members.

Prisoners with extensive tattoos on their backs, shackled and in white shorts, stand during a prison tour.

Prisoners in a cell block are viewed by officials.

Inmate with MS-13 gang tattoos visible on his head, seen through cell bars.

Protestor holding a sign demanding the release of Venezuelan artist Arturo Suarez, imprisoned in El Salvador.

Esmeralda Morillo, aunt of Venezuelan Arturo Suarez, 33, holds a sign that reads ‘Arturo Suarez, you are an artist, not a criminal. Freedom!’ during a protest demanding his release, in Caracas, Venezuela[/caption]