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

Andry Jose Hernandez Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim crown' tattoos proved he was a gang member

For as long as anyone can remember Andry Jose Hernandez 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.