The two most important things in Jerce Reyes’s life, according to those who know him best, are family and soccer.
The former professional soccer player’s tattoos are a testament to those passions: of a soccer ball and other symbols on his left arm, as well as the names of his two daughters, which were all inked by his friend Victor Mengual.
Little did this Venezuelan player know that some of those drawings would, years later, lead to him being placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the United States in September.
This month, the 35-year-old was among the hundreds of Venezuelan deportees transferred to El Salvador’s most notorious prison after US President Donald Trump invoked an 18th century law to deport hundreds of undocumented migrants to the Central American country.
Part of the reasoning for Reyes’s deportation, US authorities argue, lies on his arms, which they say is evidence of his membership to an infamous Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
But Mengual, who works as a tattoo artist in Venezuela and tattooed Reyes twice in 2018 and 2023, says this is all a misunderstanding.
Below the crown, Mengual had tattooed the word “Dios,” which means God in Spanish and is also the nickname of the late Argentinian soccer star Diego Armando Maradona.
Other tattoos Mengual drew on Reyes are the names of his daughters, Isabela and Carla Antonella, a map of Venezuela, a star, and a goalkeeper, his position on the pitch, he said.
US authorities have linked certain tattoos to the criminal group. Guidance on Tren de Aragua from the Texas Department of Public Safety states that tattoos of crowns, roses or stars are all widely used by the gang members, while two of its mottos include the words Real and Dios.
“It’s so unjust!” Mengual despaired. “I’ve read in the news that Tren de Aragua uses crowns or roses, but, so what? I don’t understand why an innocent man has to pay for it?”
‘This is not true’
In southern Mexico, Reyes’s partner denies the accusations against him.
The deportee’s lawyer Tobin said Reyes left the Venezuelan city of Machiques last March following political unrest. He arrived in Mexico and registered on the CBP One app, a Biden-era mechanism for migrants to legally enter the US.
Records show Reyes entered the US on September 1 for an appointment with migration authorities but was immediately detained, accused of being a gangster, and placed in ICE custody.
She also showed reels of Reyes’s performances as a soccer player in Venezuela’s First and Second Divisions.
In December, Reyes and Tobin applied for asylum and withholding of removal and he was granted a hearing to present his case based on the political situation in Venezuela. A few months later, Trump was inaugurated and quickly launched an immigration crackdown.
According to his lawyer, Reyes is still due to appear in front of an immigration judge in San Diego on April 17.
On March 16, Araujo started scrolling through videos shared on social media by the Salvadorean presidency showing the deportees’ arrivals at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison designed to hold El Salvador’s gangsters.
Amid clips showing deportees frog-marched in white uniforms towards their cell, Araujo was able to spot someone resembling her partner.
The following day Tobin got confirmation that Reyes had indeed been deported. His name later appeared in a list of deportees first published by CBS News, as claims of innocence from the families of the deportees began to sprout across the media.
“He’s innocent, and it’s not only the family who says it, everyone who knows Jerce knows this is not true,” Araujo claims.
A community calls for his release
In Reyes’ hometown Machiques, a small, rural city close to the border with Colombia, his old club Perijaneros FC is starting a campaign to demanding his release.
In footage shared on Instagram and TikTok, children from the soccer school recite a prayer for their former coach, who left town like so many others looking for a better future abroad.
In the last decade, more than eight million Venezuelans have fled economic crisis and political repression under President Nicolas Maduro, who criticized the US and El Salvador for “kidnapping” his fellow citizens last week.
When the news broke that he had been deported to El Salvador, the community was shocked, he said.
“I don’t understand, how can you take a person and put it in a cell without a thorough investigation? How could they not look into this before condemning a person?”