Noah Lanard
@nlanard
reporter @motherjones, previously @washingtonian and freelancing from Mexico City
Incredibly powerful moment as some of Neri Alvarado's relatives see him walking off the plane in Venezuela after his release from CECOT. He was targeted because of his tattoos—the largest of which is an autism awareness ribbon featuring his brother's name.
"The bitterness is still there. The anger about what happened to him is still there.” More than 200 men sent to El Salvador were released from CECOT and returned to Venezuela. @nlanard and I talked to relatives and friends waiting to be reunited with them. motherjones.com/politics/2025/…
CONFIRMED: Neri Alvarado, the Venezuelan man imprisoned by the Trump admin without due process for 4 months in El Salvador because of bureaucratic errors stemming from his autism awareness tattoo honoring his brother, is FREE.
Neri Alvarado's sister confirmed to me that he is now back in Venezuela. Neri's wrongful imprisonment attracted international attention. He is the 25-year-old with an autism awareness ribbon tattooed on his leg. This is him leaving the plane.
Amazing AP image from Ariana Cubillos of Arturo Suárez, a Venezuelan musician sent to CECOT, walking off the plane. (Identified to me by a relative.) “We spent four months without any contact with the outside world,” Suárez told teleSUR today. “We were kidnapped."
Today we published our 2nd story investigating the backgrounds of 230+ Venezuelan men Trump deported to Salvadoran. We did a first ever case-by-case analysis and found half were in the middle of their immigration cases, including dozens seeking asylum propublica.org/article/venezu…