Improvisation Delayed Delivery of Bodies of Venezuelans Deported from the U.S.

The process of returning the bodies of Venezuelans deported from the United States became mired in disarray, highlighting a severe lack of sanitary control in La Guaira state after the earthquakes of June 24. Deportees had been staying at the Santuario La Llanada hotel to complete identity procedures when seismic activity collapsed the structure, leading to a significant loss of life and overwhelming local forensic services.

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I was about to take a corpse that was not him because there was no organization or control there. Someone would arrive, see a body with features similar to their relative, and take it without questions or proof.

The sheer volume of deceased individuals saturated the morgues, forcing authorities to use "Los Silos," a provisional storage facility at the port, for the bodies. This situation, coupled with a scarcity of technical resources, exacerbated the chaos. Daniely Hurtado, wife of the deceased Eduardo Osal Mujica, recounted a harrowing near-miss where she almost cremated the wrong remains due to the disorganization in labeling body bags.

Compounding the issue, commercial trucks typically used for transporting food were employed to move the bodies to the hospital, which reportedly refused the cargo due to a lack of space. Witnesses confirmed that bodies were arriving in "meat trucks" at the hospital, only to be turned away. Families were left to sift through rows of exposed human remains on the floor, relying on personal effects and visible characteristics for identification.

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Trucks used for meat arrived, full of bodies, at the hospital, and a pathologist did not accept them because they could no longer cope with so many corpses.

Adding to the distress, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) initially restricted visual recognition of the bodies, citing advanced decomposition. This led to premature cremations of unclaimed victims. Official information channels failed during the emergency, with families relying on private messaging platforms to discover the fates of their relatives. Yesenia Méndez learned of her brother's death after seeing a photograph of a limb with a family tattoo in a WhatsApp group. Faced with a lack of state assistance, grieving families bore the costs of private transport for their loved ones' remains, often without medical supervision.

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I feel that all this that happened is an injustice, because more than one of us were waiting for our relatives. My brother, at least, had not been to Venezuela for 10 years and his hope was to meet us. We had so much hope of seeing him.