Venezuelans newly deported from US missing after hotel collapse

More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble. A deportation flight from Miami arrived hours before Wednesday’s earthquakes.

Onboard were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children; they were transported to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada in La Guaira, where they underwent medical exams and received identification documents and were told they would go home the next day. Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble with about 20 other deportees who walked the streets looking for help.

"We walked about five kilometers, and I cried and cried … there was no communication," she said from her home in Maracaibo. She described being buried under a beam, freeing herself and later saying, "I was born again; God gave me a second chance." The Venezuelan government says more than 1,700 people were killed.

Venezuela, La Guaira

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