U.S. Deportees Trapped as Earthquakes Strike Venezuela After Flight Arrival

The timing was catastrophic. Flight 164 arrived at Maiquetía International Airport and transferred its passengers to a hotel for medical exams and administrative processing just before the region was hit by 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes. While the Venezuelan government reports a total death toll exceeding 3,000 people as of July 8, the fate of those on the flight remains a subject of intense secrecy and family desperation.

Survival and Trauma at Hotel Santuario La Llanada

For those who survived, the experience was a blur of noise and falling concrete. Lisbeth Portillo, 58, was staying in a second-floor room with 16 other women when the shaking began. She describes hearing a sound like papa, papa papapa as the women around her began to fall. Portillo was buried by a beam but managed to escape when the shifting rubble created an opening.

I was born again; God gave me a second chance. I am traumatized. Lisbeth Portillo, survivor via AP News

Portillo and about 20 other deportees walked five kilometers through the streets of La Guaira, witnessing people emerging from the ruins naked or barefoot. They eventually reached a National Guard building to contact their families. Other survivors, such as 24-year-old Jenny Rodriguez, describe being trapped under debris and only escaping after a fellow passenger from the flight helped pull them free.

The Search for the Missing Passengers of Flight 164

Despite the chaos, families of those on Flight 164 are facing a secondary disaster: a total lack of information. Relatives of 31-year-old Ángel Jesús Romero Audivet and 40-year-old Jhonattan Lamus have spent weeks searching hospitals and morgues in Caracas and La Guaira with no results.

The frustration stems from a void of official records. Adela Yelitza Osuna, searching for her cousin Lamus, told el Nuevo Herald that there are no lists anywhere, noting that neither the U.S. government nor local authorities have provided a manifest of who arrived at the hotel or who was rescued.

• Ángel Jesús Romero Audivet: A dual Venezuelan-Colombian citizen who lived in Atlanta; last contacted family after landing.
• Jhonattan Lamus: A New Jersey resident born in San Cristóbal; last spoke with family between 4:00 and 4:10 p.m. on June 24.
• Flight 164 Manifest: 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children.

SEBIN Blockades and Government Secrecy

The site of the collapsed Santuario La Llanada hotel has been transformed into a restricted zone. Families and activists report a total blockade by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), the agency tasked with guarding the deportees.

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Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, attempted to document the humanitarian situation in the disaster area. While she was granted access to other collapsed buildings, she was stopped by armed SEBIN agents in black uniforms at the hotel. The officers cited security measures as the reason for the restriction and barred her from taking photographs.

This secrecy has left the survival rate of the flight a matter of speculation. While the Venezuelan regime has not released a separate accounting for the deportees, one survivor told el Nuevo Herald he estimates that only 35 to 42 people from the flight survived—a figure that remains unverified.

The Context of Mass Deportations

The arrival of Flight 164 was part of a broader push by the Trump administration for mass removals. According to ICE Flight Monitor data, the U.S. operated 12 deportation flights to Venezuela in May alone, with flights running three days a week. This activity follows a 13-month pause in deportations to the country that ended in February 2025.

The human cost of these policies is underscored by the plight of people like Portillo, who had lived in South Florida for over four years and held a pending asylum claim before being caught in the deportation drive. For many families, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that the U.S. government provided no list of those sent, leaving the search for the missing to be conducted blindly among the rubble of a collapsed hotel.