Additional Coverage:
- More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. hours before the earthquakes are missing (pbs.org)
Survivors of U.S. Deportation Flight Caught in Deadly Venezuela Earthquakes
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – More than 100 Venezuelans deported from the United States found themselves trapped in the chaos of devastating earthquakes that struck their homeland just hours after their arrival, survivors recounted.
A deportation flight carrying 146 Venezuelans-including 19 women and seven children-landed in Caracas from Miami shortly before Wednesday’s twin earthquakes, which registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The tremors caused widespread destruction, particularly in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit coastal cities.
Lisbeth Portillo, 58, was among those taken to a local hotel after the deportation. She described how she and around 20 others escaped from the rubble, walking through the city’s damaged streets in search of help. “We walked about five kilometers, and I cried and cried… there was no communication,” Portillo said during a phone interview from her home in Maracaibo.
The group eventually reached a National Guard facility where they managed to contact their families. “I was born again; God gave me a second chance,” Portillo said, her voice breaking with emotion. She admitted to feeling deeply traumatized by the experience.
According to Venezuelan authorities, the earthquakes claimed more than 1,700 lives nationwide.
Portillo’s ordeal began months earlier, when she was deported under the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement. In May, ICE Flight Monitor documented 288 deportation flights to 38 countries, including Venezuela, where flights resumed earlier this year after a 13-month hiatus.
At the hotel, deportees underwent medical checks and received identification documents. They were told they would be sent to their hometowns the following day.
Portillo was on the second floor with 16 other women when the earthquakes struck. She recalled stepping onto a balcony and noticing an ominous black sky and intense heat before the shaking began.
“I heard ‘papa, papa papapa,’ and saw the women next to me falling. They were screaming for help,” she said.
A second quake followed almost immediately. Buried under debris and a heavy beam, Portillo was ultimately able to free herself despite bruises covering her body.
Jenny Rodriguez, 24, another deportee, told Telemundo that she was trapped beneath rubble but rescued by a fellow passenger from the flight. “Thanks to God-and to him-I was able to get out,” she said.
Meanwhile, Liliana Rojas is desperately seeking news of her 33-year-old partner, deported from a Texas detention center just before the disaster. “No one is giving an answer about anything,” she said.
Portillo, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in late 2021 with an active asylum claim, initially struggled to recall her children’s contact information. After calling her husband in the United States, she was finally able to reconnect with her family and was reunited with her children the next evening.
“That day, on the 24th, I was born again,” she reflected, having lived in South Florida for over four years before her deportation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deportation flight or the situation of those affected by the earthquakes.
The tragic convergence of deportation and natural disaster has left many Venezuelan families grappling with grief and uncertainty as recovery efforts continue.