Search for deportees from US continues in the rubble of the hotel they were taken to in Venezuela’s La Guaira city.
Published On 30 Jun 2026
The United States deported more than 140 people to Venezuela on the same day twin earthquakes rocked the country, with rescue crews now desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of a hotel where they were being held, according to survivors.
A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela hours before the June 24 earthquakes, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported on Monday.
On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks US deportation flights.
Lisbeth Portillo, one of the deportees, told AP she escaped from the rubble of the hotel in La Guaira city with about 20 others and walked the streets looking for help.
As they emerged from the destruction, they saw people running, some naked and others barefoot, through La Guaira, one of the areas hit the hardest by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes.
The Venezuelan government says more than 1,700 people were killed by the earthquakes across the country.
“We walked about 5km [3.1 miles], and I cried and cried… There was no communication,” Portillo said.
The group reached a National Guard building where they had a chance to call relatives, she said.
“I was born again; God gave me a second chance,” Portillo added.
Portillo said she was standing on the balcony of the hotel where the deportees were taken when she felt the first earthquake.
“I started hearing ‘papa, papa, papapa’, and I saw the women next to me start to fall,” she said, describing the sound of the quake. “They were all screaming for help.”
And almost immediately, the second earthquake hit.
A video from the Venezuelan government posted on social media showed images of the deportees being received by Venezuelan authorities upon their arrival at Caracas airport.
As part of US President Donald Trump’s drive for mass deportations, ICE Flight Monitor tracked 288 deportation flights to 38 countries in May, including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile and the Ivory Coast.
The US ran 12 deportation flights to Venezuela the same month, according to the monitor.
Jenny Rodriguez told the Telemundo network that she was on the deportation flight and was also 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.”
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for information from the AP.
Many of those on board last week’s deportation flight from Miami are now feared to be among the casualties of the earthquakes.
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