This is Arturo Suárez-Trejo, 33. He also goes by SuarezVzla, as a musical artist. He had left his native Venezuela in 2018 and had settled in Chile. There he made music, friends and fans, but he wanted to improve his musical skills and find more opportunities and connections in USA. So, on September 2, 2024, around 1 p.m., he entered the United States after presenting himself at the San Ysidro border crossing in California. He entered through the CBP One program, and had the protection of a parole program. A hearing on his asylum case was scheduled for April 2 of this year.
On February 8, Arturo was recording a video clip at a home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lived. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived and arrested the entire group of people. They first held him at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. They then transferred him to the Valle Detention Center in Texas. At one point, he told his family he was being deported to Venezuela.“
We thought they were going to deport him to Caracas, Venezuela” says his brother, Nelson Suárez-Trejo, 35, who describes Arturo as a noble man, a lover of music and poetry, who has never thrown a punch beyond his kickboxing practices.
Days after Arturo’s last call, the nightmare began. The images of the inmates, shaved, handcuffed, and sent on three flights to El Salvador as alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, were shocking. They zoomed in on one and there was no doubt: it was Suárez.“We knew it because of the tattoos he has and his physical features,” his brother says.
No one has provided any information or warning to the family. Confirmation didn’t come until Thursday, when CBS News published an internal U.S. government list of the names of the 238 Venezuelans who were sent to the Central American country, despite a judge’s order preventing the deportation. The name Arturo Suárez-Trejo appears on the list. To this day, the family remains unaware of what will happen to him.“We haven’t received any response from the Salvadoran government. We don’t even know what charges he faces. He had no criminal record,” his brother says.Arturo’s family, friends, and fans have been circulating documents on social media confirming that he has no criminal record in any of the countries where he has lived. Dozens of people have shared his photos, his videos perched on a stage, and his love songs. They have united to demand justice for someone they describe as “a fundamental pillar of Santiago’s emerging cultural scene.”
Suárez “is an artist, not a criminal,” they assert.“He doesn’t deserve to have his life ended, to have his name tarnished,” his brother insists. “I don’t understand how they can cut short the dreams of someone who came to this country to dream big and who didn’t enter illegally. We’re affected; we’re not Tren de Aragua, we’re not even from Aragua.”
Nelson would also like to know “how he is, how they are treating him” in prison. It’s the same question being asked by Nathali, Sánchez’s wife, who has been struggling with so much concern for almost a week. “In the Texas prison, he was coughing blood and had a fever. I’m afraid it could get worse,” says the 27-year-old, who cares for their daughter, a baby born just three months ago. “I won’t rest until I see him free, until I see him with his daughter.”
Now, Arturo’s brother, Nelson, is the one who will have to take care of the baby and his wife, who remain in Chile. “She doesn’t have the means to work three months after giving birth. She’s alone, and now I, as his brother, have to take care of them.” But the thing is, Nelson is also afraid to go out on the streets. He’s an Amazon delivery driver; he has to work. His papers are in order, but nothing guarantees that the same thing that happened to Suárez won’t happen to him. “I’m also terrified of being stopped. I have my TPS, my court date, and my license, all in order, but who knows. I walk the streets in fear because I also have tattoos, but I don’t belong to any gang; all I’ve done my whole life is work.
”Credit Carla Gloria Colomé and Florantonia Singer at El Pais for the information in this post.
This is one of SuarezVzla's music videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xiANLIHGMc&t=102s
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