Relatives of Venezuelans deported by the US are desperately searching for their loved ones after a hotel holding more than 100 deportees collapsed during deadly earthquakes in Venezuela. A deportation flight from Miami to Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar International Airport carried 146 people, including 19 women and 7 children, who were taken to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira.
Earthquakes Strike
Hours later, two once-in-a-century earthquakes struck Venezuela, causing widespread damage and killing at least 1,700 people. Some of the deportees survived the hotel’s collapse, but many remain trapped in the rubble. Rescuers have been combing through the rubble in a desperate attempt to save any survivors.
Luis Armando Dasilva, whose sister Amanda Donizete was deported, said, ‘They are not giving us answers about where she is. If she is there at a hospital or at the morgue. We have already checked all of that and we haven’t found her.’ Dasilva’s sister had been working in the US state of Georgia after fleeing Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis.
The US has sent search and rescue teams to Venezuela and committed more than $300 million to relief efforts. In October, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 300,000 Venezuelan migrants, who were permitted entry under a humanitarian relief program. Since then, the US has been deporting hundreds of people per week to Venezuela.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
