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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Tom Phillips and Clavel Rangel

‘He is not a gang member’: outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos

Andry José Hernández Romero with makeup brushes
Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, told US agents he was fleeing persecution stemming from his sexual orientation and political views Photograph: Family handout

For as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.

At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots.

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