Tattoo mix‑up puts UK tourist's Miami trip in jeopardy
Pete Belton, a 44-year-old resident of Ilkeston in Derbyshire, fears that his family holiday in Miami could result in a stay at Guantanamo Bay. The reason? A tattoo on his arm.
What does a tattoo have to do with Guantanamo Bay? 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 US 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 cancelling the trip but has decided to monitor the situation. "Hopefully now they'd realise I'm not a Venezuelan gangster," he added.
Controversies around gang identification
Experts in the US emphasise that tattoos are not a reliable indicator of affiliation with criminal organisations. 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 organisation that spread beyond the country's borders due to the humanitarian and economic crisis in 2014. The group operates through alliances with local criminal organisations and is estimated to have about 5,000 members.
