Venezuelan Man Deported Over Rose Tattoos Seeks US Return to Clear Name
In the bustling heart of Bogotá's Bolivar Square, Luis Muñoz Pinto sat motionless, his head buried in his hands as vivid memories of his deportation from the United States to a brutal Salvadoran prison overwhelmed him. The 27-year-old Venezuelan was among more than 250 men accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, leading to his expulsion to the notorious Cecot terrorism mega-prison in El Salvador last March.
"I thought that my life had somehow ended," Muñoz Pinto recalled, describing the shock of arrival and immediate harsh treatment. Now freed, he is one of over 100 deportees whom a US federal court has ruled must be permitted to return to American soil to receive the due process they were denied, despite pushback from the US State Department.
Tattoos Misinterpreted as Gang Symbols
As tourists flowed past, Muñoz Pinto pointed to the large rose tattoos on each knee that US authorities cited as evidence of criminal gang affiliation, maintaining he is part of Tren de Aragua. "I would like to explain that these two tattoos, these two roses, are for my younger sisters, they are twins, and have nothing to do with any gangs," he stated in an exclusive Guardian interview conducted in Spanish in central Bogotá.
He recounted how an immigration officer in the US saw the roses and immediately declared him a gang member, dismissing his claims of being a college student seeking to work and support his family. "I even told him that he had tattoos too and he responded 'but you're Venezuelan'," Muñoz Pinto said.
Background and Flight from Venezuela
Muñoz Pinto was a robotics engineering student in Valencia, Venezuela, when he participated in the 2017 spring protests against autocrat Nicolás Maduro, some of which turned deadly. Fearing state persecution, he abandoned his studies, left his family and friends, and fled to Colombia with whatever funds he could gather.
While in Bogotá, he got the rose tattoos that would later cause immense trouble. "I got the rose on the right knee in September of 2021 and the rose on the left knee in January of 2022," he explained. "It was a way to keep my sisters close to me, a pair of roses, just delicate and beautiful like them, they are my strength to this day."
Alirio Rodríguez, the Venezuelan tattoo artist in Bogotá who inked Muñoz Pinto, confirmed the roses were meant to honor his twin sisters. "Luis told me he wanted a couple of tattoos that represented his twin sisters, not their names, something more feminine," Rodríguez said. "When I later found out that Luis had been deported because of the roses I couldn't believe it, those roses are not from the Tren de Aragua."
Journey to the US and Detention
Muñoz Pinto has no criminal record in any country. After a harrowing journey from Colombia to the US-Mexico border, he crossed into the US without authorization in June 2024, was swiftly expelled, but later received an asylum appointment. He told Biden administration officials he feared for his life if returned to Venezuela and signed a sworn statement denying gang ties.
Nonetheless, he was detained, forced to strip for tattoo photographs, and taken to the Otay Mesa detention center in San Diego. Between then and being flown to El Salvador early in the second Trump administration, he never set foot on American soil as a free man. "At Otay Mesa I understood that I had been classified as a gang member because I was sharing a cell with men that had tattoos of Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18," he said.
Controversial US Gang Classification
The Trump administration labeled Tren de Aragua a state-sponsored international terrorist organization, despite reported skepticism from US intelligence about Venezuelan government involvement. Immigration officials were instructed to use factors like tattoos to identify gangsters among Venezuelan migrants.
Texas authorities listed roses among tattoos associated with Tren de Aragua, and ICE claimed gang members favor specific basketball jerseys and footwear, drawing widespread skepticism. Experts expressed doubts, with Ronna Rísquez, who investigated the gang, stating, "There are no distinctive features or tattoos among the members of the Tren de Aragua in the way that other gangs in Latin America do."
Professor Luis Fernando Trejos noted the stigmatization, saying, "There is a stigmatization that has grown with [Nayib] Bukele, that every man with tattoos in El Salvador is automatically a member of the Mara Salvatrucha. And it happened the same in the US when a list of tattoos were [allegedly] indicative that any Venezuelan could be a member of the Tren de Aragua."
Deportation and Prison Ordeal
When asked for evidence linking Muñoz Pinto to Tren de Aragua, the DHS responded, "We are confident in our law enforcement's intelligence, and we aren't going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane." The agency reiterated he is an illegal alien and gang member who received due process.
However, the Trump administration defied a federal court order by deporting him and others to El Salvador last March. His family was unaware of his whereabouts until images of shackled men emerged and CBS News obtained internal documents. "I remember that while the guards were shaving my head I thought that my life had somehow ended or was going to end there," Muñoz Pinto said.
In Cecot, he endured psychological torment, including sleep deprivation from guards jangling keys and frequent beatings. "Now when I hear any keys I stay quiet, like everything stops, and I think of those guards in El Salvador, I start having so many flashbacks, I tremble," he admitted. The Salvadoran government did not respond to allegations of abuse at Cecot.
Release and Hopes for the Future
Muñoz Pinto was suddenly released last July in a prisoner swap and returned to Venezuela before making his way back to Bogotá, where he now works seven days a week delivering food. He sends money to his sick parents in Venezuela and supports his twin sisters, now 19 and studying medicine.
He showed his first tattoo, a wolf on his chest, symbolizing his role as protector. "My parents had been sick since I was little, so I had to go out of the house and work and make extra money for everyone, I am like the lone wolf that has to leave to protect his family," he explained. He dreams of resuming his engineering degree, possibly in the US or a safer Venezuela.
As salsa song "Mi Libertad" played in a Bogotá restaurant, Muñoz Pinto sang softly and wept, recalling how singing with fellow inmates provided solace despite provoking guard beatings. "You want to know why I survived Cecot? Because the other Venezuelans and I used to sing this song and became like a family in the middle of the tragedy," he said. His future remains uncertain, but his spirit endures defiantly.
