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Francisco José G.C.: Venezuelan barber deported to El Salvador's mega-prison

Francisco García, a barber who fled Venezuela's crisis and crossed into the US in 2023, was deported under a wartime law to El Salvador's CECOT despite his mother's insistence he is not a gang member.

Mar 15, 2025Country of origin: Venezuela

Francisco José G.C.: Venezuelan barber deported to El Salvador's mega-prison
Photo via BBC

Francisco José García Casique, a 24-year-old barber from Maracay, Venezuela, was deported from the US and sent not to Venezuela but to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison. His mother, Myrelis Casique López, recognized him in footage of 238 Venezuelans shackled and being forcibly escorted into the facility, identifying him by tattoos of roses and family names. He had fled Venezuela's economic and political crisis in 2019, lived briefly in Peru, and crossed into the US in September 2023; his mother insists he has no gang ties and believes his tattoos led authorities to wrongly label him a member of Tren de Aragua. He was deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law that does not require formal charges.

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