In 2022, “Juan” posed for a picture that changed the course of his life.  

Read the episode transcript here.

He was at the beginning of a year-long migration journey to the United States with a group of family members. They were some of the millions of Venezuelans who have left their country in the past several years to look for work. 

Outside a bus terminal in Ibagué, in western Colombia, the group stopped in front of an antique train car that sat like a monument in a small plaza. Juan smiled at the camera. He was happy, giving the thumbs up sign, his legs dangling off the side of the train car.

He would go on to cross the Darién Gap, migrate through Central America atop trains and through forests, and eventually reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

When he was detained by U.S. border officials in El Paso in May 2024, Juan was pulled aside and interrogated for hours. The officials found the picture on his phone and claimed that it, along with a tattoo of three stars on his right arm, was proof that he was affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. 

Juan, who has no criminal record in the United States other than unauthorized entry, refutes this claim, saying the photo was simply a way to remember a moment. He says he got the tattoo when he was 16 years old because it looked like a tattoo of one of his favorite reggaeton artists.

Nevertheless, months later, this accusation landed Juan in the crosshairs of a newly elected Trump administration who was eager to deliver on it’s campaign promise to wage an all out war on immigrants, and eventually, on one of the first flights of migrants that the administration sent to one of the world’s most infamous prisons: Guantánamo Bay. 

Juan tells Latino USA about the harrowing 15 days he spent there—days that, he says, felt like being buried alive.

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This story was produced by Ariel Goodman and edited by Andrea López-Cruzado. It was mixed and scored by Stephanie Lebow and JJ Querubin. 

Featured illustration by Alexander Charner.