Gay makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero has been reunited with his family in Venezuela and is now recounting the torture he experienced for 125 days in a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison after the U.S. wrongly sent him there, falsely accusing him of being a member of the transnational Tren de Aragua terrorist gang because of his crown tattoos that said “mom” and “dad.”

Romero came to the U.S. in 2024 to flee anti-gay persecution in Venezuela, but in March, the U.S. sent Romero and over 200 other Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) without any legal due process. The Venezuelan government, Romero’s lawyer, and his family said he had no connections to the gang, but U.S. officials said they were unable to organize his release.

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That claim proved to be untrue, as the U.S. recently coordinated his release as part of a prisoner swap, trading over 250 Venezuelan men the U.S. had sent to CECOT for 10 U.S. citizens who had been imprisoned in Venezuela.

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Now reunited with his parents in Capacho Nuevo, Venezuela as of Wednesday morning, Romero received a welcome home party, complete with cheering neighbors, a cake in the colors of the Venezuelan flag, flowers, and a crown, KGTV reported. He also told local media that he and his fellow inmates faced torture, sexual abuse, and the denial of food at CECOT.

“It was an encounter with torture and death,” Romero said. “Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face… from the projectiles.

The Venezuelan attorney general has promised to investigate Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele over the abuse claims. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security dismissed the claims on Tuesday, calling the newly freed Venezuelan men “criminal, illegal gang members” but offering no additional proof of their alleged wrongdoing.

Romero’s lawyer Lindsay Toczylowski told Advocate that Romero’s case illustrated “a really dark foreshadowing of where we’re going as a country if this is allowed to stand.”

“These are people who were sent with no due process to be tortured, only to then be used as political pawns in a prisoner release that none of us were privy to before it happened, that none of them consented to being a part of,” Toczylowski said.

On April 21, out gay Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and three other Congress members sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador William Duncan, urging them to confirm Romero’s safety through a wellness check inside CECOT. That month, Garcia visited El Salvador with a delegation of three other Democratic lawmakers. Though the delegation met with U.S. Embassy officials, the ambassador, and human rights advocates, they weren’t allowed to see Romero.

In a May 14 hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused Garcia’s request to let Romero’s mother know if he’s still alive. Noem callously claimed that prison is outside of her “jurisdiction” and told Garcia to ask the U.S. president or the Salvadoran government instead. In late May, a federal judge dismissed Romero’s asylum case, making it even harder to ensure his release.

However, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, for which Toczylowski serves as CEO, is appealing the case’s dismissal, claiming that Romero’s asylum due process was wrongfully terminated in violation of the Constitution and international asylum laws.

“These men survived 125 days in a torture prison, and we don’t believe that anybody else should have to suffer the same fate,” said Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

Hernandez said he felt most happy to see his parents and brother, but felt touched that other friends and family held vigils for him while campaigning for his return.

“It fills me with so much peace, so much comfort, so much tranquility that I was never alone, from day one,” Romero said. “There were many people who worried for me.”

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