Orlando Jesús Tesla León (36) decided to go to the United States for a better quality of life and for the American dream for his children, according to his wife, Yesenia Zavala. “We no longer have a home, and he wanted to give his children a house,” she said. The couple have three children.
Orlando left Venezuela in July 2023; his journey was difficult. “He was thirsty, hungry, and had to walk through the Darien Jungle. He rode the train of death to reach Mexico and the United States,” Yesenia said.
After crossing into the US from Texas, Orlando was detained for eight days without access to hygiene, including a bath or a toothbrush, and then deported back to Mexico. Still determined enter the US and make money for his family, Orlando signed up for a CPB-1 appointment. “I'm going to wait. I trust God that they'll give me an appointment,” Yesenia remembers him saying.
Orlando was successful and he was able to cross legally into the US with a CPB-1 appointment. He was released with an electronic ankle bracelet. A month later, his bracelet was removed.
Orlando lived in San Antonio and worked as a car painter and construction worker, but on January 26th, 2025, he was arrested by ICE while he was wiring his wages to his wife in Venezuela. “They were saying he was part of Tren de Aragua just for having tattoos. He's always liked tattoos, but my partner is innocent,” Yesenia said.
Yesenia last spoke to her husband on March 15th, 2025, when he called from detention, “They're going to deport me, I'm going to be deported to Venezuela,” she remembers him telling her. But Yesenia’s husband did not arrive in Venezuela, instead his name appeared on the list of 238 men sent, without the opportunity for a legal defense, to the notorious Salvadoran prison, CECOT.
This prison is known by human rights groups for its inhumane conditions, torture, and lack of contact with the outside. Inmates are not allowed to go outside at all or even to experience sunlight. Cristosal, an international Human rights group, has reported hundreds of deaths in CECOT and other Salvadoran prisons since 2020.
“[Orlando] has no criminal record, neither in the United States nor in Venezuela. He has three children, and he would give his life for them,” Yesenia said. She is asking for justice and freedom for her husband “who is innocent and has nothing to do with the gang, Tren de Aragua.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot