A shelter housing recent U.S. deportees collapsed in Venezuela earthquakes

MEXICO CITY — Darwin Elizer Serrano López left Venezuela three years ago with the dream of earning enough to send his daughters to school. He ended up in Chicago, where he drove for Uber seven days a week, stopping at 8:30 every night to call home.

Serrano’s family was worried when immigration officials showed up at their door with a deportation order, but they were relieved to know they would be able to see him again soon. Speaking to her mother from the detention centre, Serrano, 33, promised to return to Venezuela in time for her daughter’s 10th birthday on July 31.

On June 24, Serrano was placed on a plane in shackles and flown from Miami to Caracas. From there, Venezuelan authorities took him and dozens of other U.S. exiles to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada, a complex of ocean-front buildings in the port city of La Guaira.

Hours later, when double earthquakes occurred 39 seconds apart in Venezuela, the hotel shook violently and then collapsed.

Serrano’s family has not heard from him since.

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

She is devastated to think that her son will never be able to enjoy the things he missed while abroad: dancing salsa with his wife, grilling meat with his father, drinking cold beer and playing football with his siblings.

Then they have children. His 9-year-old son cannot accept his father’s death. “He keeps repeating: ‘My father will come to my 10th birthday.’ That’s all he said.”

The earthquakes killed at least 1,700 people, injured more than 5,000, and many remain missing.

In La Guaira, dozens of recently deported people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble of the Hotel Santuario.

Many were part of an exodus of 8 million Venezuelans fleeing poverty and political repression during the 13-year rule of leftist authoritarian Nicolás Maduro, who was ousted by U.S. special forces in January. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim leader.

Anderson Daniel Salcedo Lozano, 22, grew up amid the chaos of the Maduro years, marked by long lines for bread and medicine, rising infant mortality, soaring inflation and violent suppression of protests.

He was still a young boy when he started earning money to help his mother build a house. He traveled 2,000 miles through the jungles of Colombia and through cartel-controlled areas of Mexico, eventually landing in Georgia, where he worked construction, sent money home and had a baby, now 10 months old.

Three months ago, Salcedo was detained as part of Trump’s crackdown on immigrants entering the country under the Biden-era humanitarian parole program.

Salcedo, along with Serrano, was on the plane carrying 147 people deported last week: 120 men, 19 women, five boys and two girls. A Venezuelan official released a video showing their arrival; Most looked tired but relieved that their journey was nearing its end.

Most, but not all, were believed to have been transported to the hotel in La Guaria by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service to undergo security checks.

Salcedo called his family from the hotel at 5 p.m. and said he hoped to arrive in his hometown of Nueva Bolivia, about 430 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.

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

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

“He explained that when the shaking started, they screamed to get out because the walls were cracking,” the elder Salcedo said. “They were begging to be allowed to leave, but they were not allowed to leave. They were left there to die, locked inside.”

Salcedo said he was angry at the Venezuelan government for detaining immigrants upon their return.

“These people were innocent but they were detained and eventually left to die even as they screamed to be released,” he said.

Other family members of the deportees were angry with authorities for not doing more to assist in the search and rescue process.

Josana Rincón spent days in Caracas searching for her 26-year-old son, Carlos Blanco Rincón, who called home from the hotel.

In an undated photo, 26-year-old Carlos Blanco Rincón was among Venezuelans deported from the United States on the day a double earthquake hit the country.

(Courtesy of Rincon family)

“Mom, see you tomorrow,” he told her.

“He looked relieved,” his mother said. “We are sorry to be deported, but we are happy to see each other again.”

As photos and videos of collapsed buildings in La Guaira emerged, Rincón crossed Venezuela to the hotel where his son was being held. “They told me that many people were still trapped and had not been rescued,” he said. “No one can tell me anything about him. I’m helpless.”

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

He accuses Venezuela’s Chavista government of mismanaging the economy and forcing his son to emigrate, and US officials of deporting his son despite his contributions.

He doesn’t think his son should have to choose between living in poverty at home and the many risks that come with the immigrant path.

“He was a very honest, very honest man,” he said. “If he hadn’t gone to the USA, he would have been with us.”

Linthicum and Sánchez Vidal reported from Mexico City. Times special correspondent Merry Mogollón reported from Caracas.