More than 100 people deported from the United States were housed in a hotel in Venezuela when powerful earthquakes struck, collapsing parts of the building and triggering frantic efforts to locate survivors.
A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela just hours before Wednesday’s quakes. The aircraft carried 146 Venezuelan nationals, including women and children, who were transported to a hotel in La Guaira after arrival.
One woman, 58-year-old Lisbeth Portillo, said she escaped the wreckage alongside about 20 other deportees. In the chaos, they walked through damaged streets filled with people fleeing collapsed buildings, some injured and others without shoes or clothing.
With communications down, the group traveled several kilometers on foot before reaching a National Guard facility, where they were finally able to contact family members.
Portillo said she had been staying in a second-floor room with other women when the shaking began. She described hearing loud cracking sounds as the building began to fail, followed by screams as people fell and debris came down around them. Moments later, a second quake struck, worsening the destruction.
She said she was pinned under a beam but managed to free herself after the structure shifted. She suffered bruises across her body but survived.
Officials estimate more than 1,700 people were killed in the earthquakes, which devastated multiple regions.
Other deportees also described being trapped in the collapse. One 24-year-old woman said she was buried under rubble before a fellow deportee helped pull her free. Another woman said she is still searching for her 33-year-old partner, with limited information available about his whereabouts after his deportation.
The deportation flight was part of ongoing removals of Venezuelan nationals from the United States, which have continued as deportation operations to the country resumed earlier this year after a pause.
After the disaster, survivors were eventually reunited with relatives or taken to safety, though many remain shaken by the experience. One survivor said she feels as though she has been given a second life after escaping the collapse and reconnecting with her family.
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