146 Venezuelans were deported from Texas to Caracas. Hours later, packed into a guarded hotel to be “processed,” the building pancaked on top of them when twin earthquakes hit.
146 Venezuelans were deported from Texas to Caracas. Hours later, packed into a guarded hotel to be “processed,” the building pancaked on top of them when twin earthquakes hit.
Angelo Mejía Meléndez was on that plane. He’d been building a life in Miami, working at a pier near the ocean he loved. In a voice note to his mom, he told her his bosses had just bought a Jet Ski and named it after him. “I love you so much – if I were to be born again, I would want you to be my mother,” he said. His family had planned a welcome-home party. Instead they spent days walking through hospitals and morgues. They identified his body by a pizza tattoo on his arm.
Daniel Núñez called his mother, Oswadeliz, about 30 minutes before the quake to say he’d landed. In four minutes he told her they’d live in Venezuela together, that they’d keep going. “That happiness lasted 30 minutes.” She hasn’t heard from him since. He’d lived in Jacksonville for almost five years, working construction. “Venezuelans are not animals,” she said. “They are humans, not criminals. My son paid taxes.”
Víctor Guanipa Toyo, 32, is still missing too. He and his wife were grabbed by immigration agents at a nightclub in Texas on June 12. His brother says Víctor had no criminal record and was in the country legally. He worked construction by day and drove rideshare at night. The first thing his brother did when he heard about the quake was look up the building. He saw it had collapsed.
ICE won’t say how many of the 146 survived. Families searching the rubble say no one has told them the truth.
“At this point, we need help getting their bodies from under the rubble,” Oswadeliz said. “We need their bodies.”
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