Deportees from U.S. among victims after Venezuela hotel collapse

Venezuelans deported from the United States were caught in a deadly hotel collapse in La Guaira just hours after arriving in Caracas, NPR reported. Families told the network that the deportees were being processed in a guarded hotel when twin earthquakes struck and the building gave way.

The flight from Texas carried 146 Venezuelan nationals, including women and children, according to NPR. Accounts of how many deportees survived remain unclear, and the Venezuelan agency responsible for transporting them declined to provide a toll to the network.

The agency told NPR in a WhatsApp message that families had been notified about their relatives’ status. Some relatives disputed that account, saying they have searched hospitals, shelters and morgues on their own.

Families search after collapse

Georgelyss Montes told NPR that her best friend, Angelo Mejía Meléndez, was among those killed. She said she had last seen him four years earlier at a farewell gathering before he left Venezuela for the United States.

Mejía Meléndez had been living in Miami and working at a pier, according to NPR. His family expected to reunite with him after his deportation, but instead spent days looking for him before identifying his body by a pizza tattoo on his arm, Montes told the network.

In a voice message to his mother before his deportation, Mejía Meléndez said he was doing well at work and that his bosses had named a new jet ski after him, NPR reported. Montes described the loss as painful, saying the two had grown up together.

Another family is still looking for Víctor Guanipa Toyo, 32, who had lived in Pecos, Texas, his brother Alonso Guanipa Toyo told NPR. He said Víctor worked construction during the day and drove for a rideshare service at night.

Alonso Guanipa Toyo told NPR that his brother was detained by immigration authorities in Texas on June 12 after he and his wife were picked up at a nightclub. He said Víctor had no criminal record and was in the United States legally.

After learning of the earthquakes, Alonso said he searched for the building where the deportees had been taken and saw that it had collapsed. He told NPR that a database suggested his brother might be in a hospital, but as of Monday the family had not found him.

Questions over deportations

NPR reported that it was not clear whether the Trump administration would continue deportations to Venezuela after the earthquakes. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Oswadeliz Núñez told NPR that her son, Daniel Núñez, remains missing after being deported. She said he had lived in Jacksonville, Florida, for nearly five years and worked in construction.

She told NPR that Daniel called her roughly 30 minutes before the earthquakes to say he had landed in Venezuela and was being processed. She said her son’s offenses were crossing the border illegally and a misdemeanor for driving without a license, and that immigration authorities arrested him on his way to work in May.

Oswadeliz Núñez said she still hopes her son is alive, but added that families need help recovering people from the rubble. “We need their bodies,” she told NPR.

This story draws on original reporting from NPR.