More than 100 Venezuelans recently deported from the United States are missing after a hotel collapsed during a series of earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela. The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck Wednesday, killing over 1,700 people, according to the Venezuelan government.
Deportation flight arrived hours before quakes
A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela hours before the earthquakes, carrying 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First. The deportees were transported to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit areas.
Lisbeth Portillo, 58, a deportee, said she escaped the rubble with about 20 others. They walked roughly five kilometers seeking help, encountering people running naked or barefoot from the collapsed building. “I walked about five kilometers, and I cried and cried … there was no communication,” Portillo said in a phone interview from her home in Maracaibo. They eventually reached a national guard building and called relatives. “I was born again; God gave me a second chance. I am traumatized,” she said, weeping.
Survivors describe chaos and rescue
Portillo was staying in a second-floor room with 16 other women. She stepped onto a balcony and noticed the sky was black and it was very hot. Returning to her bed, she felt shaking. “I started hearing, ‘Papa, papa papapa,’ and I saw the women next to me start to fall. They were all screaming for help,” she said. A second quake struck almost immediately. “I fall and end up buried and covered by a beam, but the shaking shifted everything where I was buried and I was able to get out,” Portillo said, showing bruises all over her body.
Jenny Rodriguez, 24, told the Telemundo network she was on the flight and taken to the hotel. “I was trapped under the rubble. A colleague who had been on the same flight came by; I managed to free my hand from the debris, grabbed him by the trousers, and begged for help. Thanks to God – and to him – I was able to get out of there,” she said.
Families search for missing loved ones
Liliana Rojas told Telemundo she has been trying to locate her 33-year-old partner. The detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he was held, only confirmed he was deported. “No one is giving an answer about anything,” Rojas said.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for information from the AP. The Venezuelan government posted a video showing deportees being received at the Caracas airport on Wednesday.
Portillo was caught up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation drive. In May, ICE Flight Monitor tracked 288 deportation flights to 38 countries, including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, and Côte d’Ivoire. The US ran 12 deportation flights to Venezuela in May, operating three days a week, resuming in February 2025 after a 13-month pause.
