The harrowing stories behind Venezuela’s twin earthquakes continue to unfold. More than 100 people—recently deported from the United States and flown back to Venezuela—were trapped under the rubble of a hotel where they had just been taken upon arrival. Survivors’ accounts from the collapsed hotel in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit areas during the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes, are deeply chilling.
Arrival and Collapse
Just hours before the first tremor struck, a plane carrying 146 deportees—including 19 women and seven children—landed in Caracas. They were transported to a hotel in La Guaira, a coastal city near the capital that suffered catastrophic damage. Among them was 58-year-old Lisbeth Portillo, who survived the collapse and described her experience to the Associated Press: “I was reborn. God gave me a second chance.”
Portillo, who had spent four years in Florida before being deported under the Trump administration’s mass removal program, recounted how she and about 20 others managed to escape the ruined building. They walked nearly five kilometers seeking help, passing scenes of panic: barefoot people, others half-dressed, all scrambling to flee the debris.
Survival Amid Ruins
They eventually reached a National Guard facility, where they were able to call relatives. Portillo had been assigned to a second-floor room with 16 other women. She recalled stepping onto the balcony moments before the quake—and seeing the sky darken. Back inside, she lay down, when suddenly the building began shaking violently. “I heard a deafening noise and the women screaming for help,” she said. Moments later, the second quake hit.
“I collapsed with the building and was buried under a beam. The tremor itself shifted the rubble—and that’s how I freed myself,” she explained, showing extensive wounds and bruises covering her body.
Unable to recall her children’s phone numbers, she called her husband in the U.S. “César, I’m alive—help me!” she pleaded. He kept replying, “It can’t be.” She repeated, “I’m alive—I made it out of the rubble, I’m alive.” Her husband then called their children, who spoke with her and reunited with her the following evening. “I was born that day. On the 24th, I was reborn,” she said.
Another Survivor’s Ordeal
Twenty-four-year-old Jenny Rodríguez also described being buried alive. “I was trapped under the rubble. A fellow deportee from the same flight passed by. I managed to free my hand, grabbed his pant leg, and begged for help. Thank God, he did.”