La Guaira/A plane with more than a hundred repatriated migrants arrived in La Guaira hours before last Wednesday’s earthquake in Venezuela. They were taken to a hotel, where they had to process their data to let them go the next day, but the place collapsed and they were trapped. There are no figures for how many survived.
“We called to inform you that your family member died and it is confirmed,” the Government of Venezuela told the sister of one of the migrants, who spoke to EFE on Monday on condition of anonymity.
The call was from a person who identified himself as part of Mission Vuelta a la Patria, the program that manages the repatriations of Venezuelan migrants and that, since last year, has been in charge of receiving those deported from the United States.
“It can’t be,” he replied. “It can’t be confirmed because I have him here with me,” responded the relative, who had the migrant, who had been hospitalized, by his side.
“It can’t be,” he replied. “It can’t be confirmed because I have him here with me,” responded the relative, who had the migrant, who had been hospitalized, by his side.
The repatriate had emigrated years ago to the United States, after crossing several borders on foot and surviving the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous migratory routes and in which countless Venezuelans have died in their attempt to reach North America.
The United States Government arrested him this year and kept him in prison for more than a month until last Wednesday, when he was deported to Venezuela.
“He spent about a month and a half in jail to be repatriated. He went to a hearing, obviously we did not have the financial resources to pay for a lawyer who could appeal for him. The judge told him that the option was to deport him,” said the sister.
The migrant told his family that during the earthquake he saw that other repatriates jumped out of the window of the place where they were to avoid being trapped in the rubble.
From the second floor of a hotel in La Guaira – the state most devastated by the earthquakes – he ran towards a door, but collapsed after receiving a blow to the head.
Already under the rubble, he knew that there were at least eight people alive because they shouted by numbers: “One, two, three…”, every so often. But at one point, he was left shouting only the number one.
“He shouted ‘one’ and no one answered him. He doesn’t know how long it took until they started calling. Then he shouted that he was alive. They rescued him and brought him to the hospital,” the sister said.
Norbert Martínez is looking for his sister, Mariángela, deported from the United States, who also arrived on the repatriation flight last Wednesday. The Government has not reported a number of the dead or injured who were deported, but rather the general number: 1,719 dead and 5,034 injured after the earthquakes.
“No one has given us information about where the repatriates are, whether they managed to save themselves or not. Nobody tells us anything,” Norbert told EFE.
Last Friday, the second day after the earthquakes, Norbert traveled almost four hours from the Yaracuy state, in western Venezuela, to reach Caracas, where he has since visited morgues and several hospitals.
He visited the site where repatriates are probably transferred when they arrive in Venezuela and found it in ruins. He was in a morgue in La Guaira, where he saw digitized photos of corpses, but he did not recognize his sister in any of them.
“They take a photo of each corpse that arrives and digitize it. That image has a code, and the code matches where the corpse is. I spent two hours looking at images and my sister is not there,” he commented.
“They take a photo of each corpse that arrives and digitize it. That image has a code, and the code matches where the corpse is. I spent two hours looking at images and my sister is not there”
Mariángela walked towards the United States in 2020. She crossed dirt and water roads, says Norbert, to get to that country. She was arrested by the US Government and detained for three months, until she was deported last Wednesday.
Norbert, a rancher by profession, had saved a sheep to welcome Mariángela. To cook it and sit down as a family again, after six years without seeing each other.
On Monday afternoon, five days after the earthquake, he returned to the place in La Guaira where he believes his sister arrived after getting off the plane. He assures that no one is working on search and rescue efforts. He still thinks he can find her alive.
“There are several families of those repatriated. We are asking for information on the list of those who arrived, how many people have been taken to the morgue and how many could remain there (under the rubble). They agreed to let us know,” he concluded.
