Tattoo mix‑up: British tourist fears US trip could end in prison
Pete Belton, a 44-year-old resident of Ilkeston in Derbyshire, fears that his family vacation in Miami could turn into a stay in Guantanamo prison. The reason? A tattoo on his arm.
What does a tattoo have to do with Guantanamo prison? It turns out that Belton's tattoo, depicting a clock face with the date and time of his daughter's birth, was included in a set of nine photos used to identify members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
This is why Belton fears that his trip to the USA with his wife and daughter in August could end in a military prison in Cuba. "In my head I'm thinking if I'm working in border force and I saw me walking through I'd think 'hey up we've got one, he's the one in the document,'" Belton said in an interview with the BBC.
The man is even considering canceling the trip but has decided to monitor the situation. "Hopefully now they'd realize I'm not a Venezuelan gangster but I've seen crazier things happen in the news recently, so we're just going to wait and see," he added.
Controversies surrounding gang identification
Experts in the USA emphasize that tattoos are not a reliable indicator of affiliation with criminal organizations. Rebecca Hanson, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Florida, stated in her court declaration that TdA and other gangs in Venezuela do not have a tradition of using tattoos to mark membership.
TdA is a Venezuelan criminal organization that spread beyond the country's borders due to the humanitarian and economic crisis in 2014. The group operates through alliances with local criminal organizations and is estimated to have about 5,000 members.
