{"slug":"venezuela-deportation-earthquake-deaths","title":"146 Deportees Housed in Hotel That Collapsed in Venezuela Earthquake Hours Later","date":"2026-06-24","lastUpdated":"2026-06-30","description":"On June 24, 2026, a US deportation flight carrying 146 people — including 19 women and 7 children — landed in Venezuela and was housed at Hotel Santuario in La Guaira. Hours later, back-to-back magnitude-7.5 and 7.2 earthquakes struck the area and the hotel collapsed. As of June 30, Venezuela's repatriation agency could confirm only 32 survivors from the flight; families report deaths, amputations, and people still missing, though no precise death toll has been confirmed in reporting.","summary":"A US deportation flight landed 146 people in Venezuela on the morning of June 24; that evening, the hotel housing them collapsed in a pair of major earthquakes. Only 32 survivors have been confirmed as of June 30. The US government controlled the timing and destination of the removal that placed these people in the building when it collapsed — an unprecedented question of duty of care in forced-transfer operations, though not a settled area of law.","category":"deportation","severity":"severe","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/30/world/venezuela-earthquakes-deportations-ice-intl-hnk","title":"Venezuelans deported by the US hours before the deadly earthquake struck are missing","publisher":"CNN"},{"url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/world/venezuela/venezuelans-deported-us-hours-earthquakes-hit-are-missing-confirmed-de-rcna352328","title":"Venezuelans deported from U.S. hours before earthquakes hit are missing, some confirmed dead","publisher":"NBC News"},{"url":"https://theweek.com/politics/venezuela-earthquake-us-deportees-missing","title":"100 US deportees feared dead in Venezuela quake","publisher":"The Week"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Venezuela","deportation","ICE","DHS","earthquake","La Guaira","duty of care","missing persons","forced removal"],"relatedEntries":["venezuela-tps-cancellation","wrongful-deportations-pattern","venezuela-military-intervention","venezuela-naval-blockade"],"timeline":[],"location":{"name":"La Guaira, Venezuela","lat":10.6,"lng":-66.93},"custom":{"posture":"documented","warCrimeClassification":"potential","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)","article":"Article 6","provision":"Right to life — states must not act with foreseeable disregard for the safety of persons under their control, though its application to a deporting government's choice of destination/timing ahead of an unforeseeable natural disaster is a novel, untested legal theory rather than settled precedent"},{"statute":"Customary international law — duty of care in forced transfer","provision":"Emerging, non-codified principle that a government which controls both the timing and destination of a forced removal bears some responsibility for the immediate physical safety of those it removes; this entry documents the harm without asserting a clean-cut violation of a specific binding rule"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"146 deportees (including 19 women and 7 children) removed from Miami to Venezuela on a single flight; as of June 30, 2026, only 32 have been confirmed as survivors by Venezuela's repatriation agency. Families report deaths, amputations, and people still missing, but no precise, confirmed death toll exists in reporting as of this writing.","perpetrators":"US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which scheduled, executed, and controlled the destination of the deportation flight"}}