Families search for deportees after Venezuela earthquakes

Families of Venezuelans deported from the United States are searching for loved ones who arrived in the country hours before powerful earthquakes struck, collapsing the hotel where some of them were being processed in the hard-hit coastal state of La Guaira.

The deportees had been taken to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada after a flight from Miami brought 146 Venezuelans back to the country, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First that tracks deportation flights. The hotel, located in the same state as Venezuela’s main airport, Simón Bolívar International Airport, collapsed after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes hit last week.

Venezuela’s government said Monday that at least 1,719 people had been killed and 5,034 injured nationwide. The United Nations estimates 50,000 people are missing. Rescue teams from around the world, including the United States, have been searching for survivors.

Some relatives have confirmed deaths among the deportees, while others say they still cannot locate family members. Enit Hernández told NBC News her husband, José Rafael Rossi Ydrogo, is missing.

“On Tuesday he called me and said they told him to gather his belongings because he was leaving the next day. That was the last time I ever heard from him,” Hernández said from Texas, where the couple lived.

Hernández said Rossi Ydrogo was detained during an ICE check-in and deported even though he had been told a judge would review his case. In Fort Worth, he owned a construction business and remodeled homes. The couple came to the U.S. in 2021 and lived in New Jersey with their daughter before moving to Texas.

“My entire life changed in just one day. There was no need for him to go through all of this. I’m here alone with my daughter now. It’s not easy,” she said.

Hernández said her husband had called his brother in Caracas about 20 minutes before the shaking began.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News the flight “safely reached Venezuela” and that all the people on board had been returned home. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them,” the spokesperson said.

Relatives and friends told NBC News that authorities have not allowed them or rescue workers near the collapsed hotel, making it difficult to confirm who survived. Katherine Arana, a Venezuelan American in Greenville, South Carolina, said she created a spreadsheet to track the deportees amid the confusion. She said relatives have reported at least 25 deportees killed, 21 still missing as of Monday and nine survivors. She also said some bodies recovered from the rubble had not been identified.

Among the missing is Daniel Alejandro Núñez Ramírez, 28. His cousin, Yaneth Gabriela Mejías Ramírez, speaking from Chile, said his mother was told he had been found alive and removed from the rubble, but the family has not located him in any hospital.

“We feel destroyed, because it really hurts us,” she said. “At the same time, we have faith we will find him. But even if he passed away, we want to find him.”

Lisbeth Portillo, one of the deportees, told The Associated Press she escaped from the hotel rubble with about 20 others and walked roughly 5 kilometers, or 3.1 miles, through La Guaira looking for help. “We walked about 5km, and I cried and cried… There was no communication,” she said. The group reached a National Guard building and called relatives.

“I was born again; God gave me a second chance,” Portillo said. She said she had been standing on a balcony when the first quake hit. “I started hearing ‘papa, papa, papapa’, and I saw the women next to me start to fall,” she said. “They were all screaming for help.” Then, she said, the second quake struck.

Another deportee, Jenny Rodriguez, told Telemundo she was trapped under debris until a fellow passenger helped her. “I managed to free my hand from the debris, grabbed him by the trousers, and begged for help,” she said. “Thanks to God, and to him, I was able to get out of there.”

Luz Marina Meléndez told Noticias Telemundo she learned her son, Angelo Mejía Meléndez, 27, had died when a survivor said he saw him perish next to him. “I’m sad and I’m enraged,” she said, adding that the family had expected to reunite that weekend.