Deported Venezuelans missing after hotel collapse in earthquake
Over 100 Venezuelans recently deported from the US were trapped when a hotel collapsed during twin earthquakes in La Guaira, killing more than 1,700 across the country. Survivors describe desperate escapes.
More than 100 people who had just been deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when deadly earthquakes struck Venezuela, triggering a frantic search for survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to those who escaped.
A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela just hours before Wednesday's earthquakes. On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First that tracks deportation flights. They were taken to a hotel in La Guaira.
Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble with about 20 other deportees and walked the streets looking for help. They saw people running, some naked and others barefoot, emerging from the collapsed building in La Guaira, one of the areas hardest hit by the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes.
"We 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 where they could call relatives. "I was born again; God gave me a second chance," she said. "I am traumatized," she added, weeping.
The Venezuelan government says more than 1,700 people were killed. 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 12 flights to Venezuela operating three days a week. Deportation flights to Venezuela resumed in February 2025 after a 13-month pause.
Portillo said the government took the group to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada, where they underwent medical exams and received identification documents. They were told they would go home the next day. She was in a second-floor room with 16 other women. She stepped onto a balcony and saw the sky was black and it was very hot. Returning to the room, she lay on a bed and began to feel shaking. "I started hearing, 'Papa, papa papapa,' and I saw the women next to me start to fall," she said, describing the earthquake sounds. "They were all screaming for help." Almost immediately, a second quake struck. "I fall and end up buried and covered by a beam, but the shaking shifted everything and I was able to get out," said Portillo, who has bruises all over her body.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP. A video from the Venezuelan government posted on social media showed deportees being received by authorities at Caracas airport on Wednesday.
Jenny Rodriguez, 24, told Telemundo that 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," she said. "Thanks to God – and to him – I was able to get out of there."
Liliana Rojas told Telemundo that she has been trying to locate her 33-year-old partner. The detention center where he was held in El Paso, Texas, only told her that he was deported. "No one is giving an answer about anything," Rojas said.
