They were deported from the United States to Venezuela on the day of the earthquakes

MEXICO CITY – Darwin Eliezer Serrano Lopez left Venezuela three years ago, dreaming of earning enough to put his daughters into school. He ended up in Chicago, where he drove for Uber seven days a week, stopping at 8:30 every night to call home.

When immigration agents came to his door with a deportation order, Serrano’s family was worried but also relieved to know they would be able to see him again soon. Speaking to his mother from a detention centre, Serrano, 33, promised to return to Venezuela in time for his daughter’s 10th birthday on July 31.

On June 24, Serrano was put on a plane in shackles and flown from Miami to Caracas. From there, Venezuelan officials escorted him and dozens of other American deportees to the Santuario La Llanada Hotel, a complex of buildings overlooking the ocean in the coastal city of La Guaira.

Hours later, when two earthquakes struck Venezuela 39 seconds apart, the hotel shook violently, then collapsed.

Serrano’s family has not heard from him since.

“We looked for him in hospitals and morgues,” his mother, Marta Lucia Lopez, said. “He didn’t show up.”

She’s devastated to think her son will never have the chance to enjoy the things he missed while abroad: dancing salsa with his wife, grilling meat with his father, sitting with his brothers drinking cold beer and playing soccer.

Then there are his children. His 9-year-old daughter cannot accept that her father is gone. “She keeps repeating: ‘My father is coming for my tenth birthday.’ That’s all you say.”

The earthquakes claimed the lives of at least 1,900 people, more than 5,000 people were injured and many are still missing.

In La Guaira, dozens of recent deportees are believed to still be trapped under rubble at the Santuario Hotel.

Many of them were part of the exodus of 8 million Venezuelans fleeing poverty and political repression during the 13-year rule of Nicolas Maduro, the leftist dictator who was ousted by US special forces in January. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president of Venezuela.

Anderson Daniel Salcedo Lozano, 22, shown in an undated family photo, was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Venezuela, but was seriously injured.

(Salcedo family)

Anderson Daniel Salcedo Lozano, 22, grew up amid the chaos of the Maduro years, which were characterized by long lines for bread and medicine, high child mortality rates, high inflation, and violent suppression of protests.

He was still a teenager when he set out to earn money to help his mother build a house. He traveled 2,000 miles, passing through the jungles of Colombia and swathes of Mexico controlled by drug cartels, before eventually arriving in Georgia, where he worked in construction, sent money home and fathered a baby boy, now 10 months old.

Three months ago, Salcedo was arrested as part of President Trump’s crackdown on immigrants who entered the country under Biden’s humanitarian parole program.

Salcedo was on the plane with Serrano that landed last week near Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, carrying more than 140 deportees: 120 men, 19 women, five boys and two girls. A Venezuelan official posted a video of their arrival, and most of them looked tired but relieved that their journey was nearing the end.

It is believed that most of them, if not all of them, were taken to the hotel in La Guaira by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service to undergo security checks.

Salcedo phoned his family from the hotel at 5 p.m. and said he hoped to reach his hometown of Nueva Bolivia, about 300 miles away, the next day. The first earthquake occurred an hour later.

Salcedo remained trapped under the rubble for 40 hours before rescuers pulled him out alive.

In a hospital in Caracas, doctors amputated his legs. Salcedo is now breathing with the help of a ventilator and has only a 15% chance of survival, his father, Javier Salcedo, said.

They were left there to die

— Javier Salcedo, father of one of the earthquake victims

The father said that he spoke to another survivor of the hotel collapse who said that the deportees were locked inside, and the authorities refused to open the doors even as the roof collapsed around them.

“He told us that when the shaking started, they screamed to get out because the walls were cracking,” Javier Salcedo said. “They were begging to be allowed to leave, but they weren’t allowed out. They were left there to die, locked inside.”

He said he was angry at the Venezuelan government for detaining migrants upon their return.

He added: “These people were innocent, yet they were detained and ultimately left to die, even as they were screaming for their release.”

Family members of other deportees were angry at officials for not doing more to assist in the search and rescue operation.

Josana Rincon spent days in Caracas searching for her son, Carlos Blanco Rincon, 26, who also called home from the hotel.

Carlos Blanco Rincon, 26, in an undated photo, was among the Venezuelans deported from the United States on the day the two earthquakes struck the country.

(Rincon family)

“Mom, we will see each other tomorrow,” he told her.

“He seemed comfortable,” his mother said. “Sad about the deportation but happy that we will see each other again.”

As photos and videos emerged of collapsed buildings in La Guaira, Rincon traveled across Venezuela to the hotel where her son was being held. “They told me that many people were still trapped and could not be rescued,” she said. “No one can tell me anything about him. I’m desperate.”

Her son worked construction for three years in North Carolina. “He was the breadwinner,” Rincon said. “I have a 14-year-old daughter and a 22-year-old son who are still studying, and it was Carlos who sent us money to help us.”

She blames the Chavez government in Venezuela for mismanaging the economy and forcing her son to emigrate, and the US authorities for deporting her son despite his contributions there.

She does not believe her son should have had to choose between living in poverty at home and the many risks involved in the migration path.

“He was a very upright and honest man,” she said. “If he had not gone to the United States, he would have been with us.”

Sanchez Vidal is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Meri Mogollon in Caracas contributed to this report.

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