(CNN) — Oswadeliz Núñez remembers arguing with her son Daniel when he decided to get a tattoo when he was 24. About four years later, that tattoo helped her identify Daniel’s body after he was killed in the twin earthquakes that devastated Venezuela last month.
Daniel had arrived back in Venezuela the day of the disaster, after being deported from the United States. From La Guaira, he called his mother from the phone of a Venezuelan intelligence service (SEBIN) officer, letting her know he was in the country.
“He told me, ‘No, Mom, we’re here with SEBIN officers,’” Núñez told CNN. He told her he and other deportees had eaten, had medical examinations and were set to spend the night at a hotel in Macuto in La Guaira, while the administrative procedures for their repatriation were being completed. The following day, he would make the nearly seven-hour trip to the town of El Tigre to reunite with his mother.
That reunion never happened. About 40 minutes after what would be his last call to his mother, the earth shook and the hotel he was in crumbled to the ground – trapping many of its inhabitants beneath the rubble.
It’s not yet clear how many of Daniel’s fellow deportees were killed alongside him that day – unconfirmed reports suggest possibly as many as 12.
Nationwide, the disaster killed thousands of people and displaced thousands more.
The agonizing search
The deportation flight carrying Daniel departed from Miami and landed at 10:22 a.m. local time at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela, on the Wednesday the earthquakes hit. According to figures released by Venezuelan authorities and ICE Flight Monitor, a Human Rights First project that tracks deportation flights, there were 146 people on board: 120 men, 19 women, and seven children.
That same Wednesday, Venezuela’s Vuelta a la Patria (“Return to the Homeland”) mission announced the arrival of Flight 164, saying the passengers had been received at Simón Bolívar International Airport “with dignity” and under “all necessary protocols” to ensure “a happy reunion in our nation.”
But that reunion was short-lived.
After the earthquakes hit, Núñez tried to contact authorities – only to receive no helpful information. She then made the journey to La Guaira, where she and a team of friends and relatives took matters into their own hands – searching hospitals, clinics and morgues for Daniel.
“We slept two or three hours at a time and kept searching. We’d go into hospitals with eight, nine, 10 floors, climb every floor and check room by room,” she said.
The search lasted until Monday, when Núñez returned to the disaster site convinced that her son had not survived and that his body was still beneath the rubble.
Officials finally directed her to a port facility that had been turned into an emergency morgue after countless bodies were unearthed from the rubble in the days following the earthquake.
“When we went to retrieve my son’s body, there was complete chaos,” Núñez said. “Bodies were lying on the floor.”
Núñez finally found a body corresponding to the number she was given. It was her son – but not the face she remembered.
“Daniel’s face was completely crushed; you could see his bones,” she recounted. Núñez’s nephew went to clean Daniel’s left arm, which was still intact.
“We saw his tattoo,” Núñez said. “When he got that tattoo, I argued with him. But now I thank God he got it, because that’s practically how I was able to recognize him.”
Red tape amid the rubble
Then came the bureaucratic hurdles she had to clear, all while the grief was still fresh and excruciating.
“They told me the cremation and burial would be free, but that we’d have to wait anywhere from 10 to 30 days,” Núñez said. Unable to wait up to a month, she ended up paying a private crematorium $680 to expedite the process.
“We couldn’t afford to stay there any longer, spending more money and time. We’re not from La Guaira.”
After receiving her son’s ashes, she made the journey back home.
“We returned home on Wednesday — not the way I wanted, with my son alive — but at least I have his ashes.”
Despite her loss, Núñez is grateful she was able to find Daniel’s body.
“There are people who still haven’t found their loved ones. They’re still searching.”
CNN has contacted Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication and the Vuelta a la Patria program for comment on Daniel’s case, as well as for additional information about the passengers on the flight and the protocols followed after the earthquakes. CNN is awaiting a response.
Arrested by ICE while seeking asylum
Daniel came to the US in 2022 after crossing the border from Mexico and began the asylum process. But on May 10, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him while he was on his way home from his construction job.
Núñez says her son had already decided to return to Venezuela.
“Daniel had already decided to go back by the end of this year because he said the persecution of migrants had become very intense,” she said.
ICE agents told Daniel his detention was over his failure to appear in court after being cited in 2024 for driving without a valid license, according to Núñez.
“He told me, ‘Mom, I paid the fine, but I didn’t know I had to appear in court.’ At the time he was moving apartments, and he believes the notice was sent to his previous address and he never received it,” she said.
Court records reviewed by CNN show that Daniel Núñez had no criminal record in the United States beyond several traffic violations, including driving without a valid license and speeding.
The records also show that in 2026 he appeared in a case involving an arrest warrant issued in another county. Available documents indicate the warrant was related to the traffic case involving his driver’s license, although the extradition file does not specify its exact origin.
Daniel had to wait until June 9 for his court hearing, where a judge dismissed the charge related to his driver’s license and imposed a fine for his previous failure to appear at court. However, because his asylum case was still pending, ICE kept him in custody before transferring him to a detention center.
“When he got there, they put a lot of psychological pressure on him to self-deport, and he decided to sign his deportation papers,” Núñez said. “They told him he’d be in Venezuela within five days, but it became 15 days. Tragically, he arrived on the 24th — the day of the earthquakes.”
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security told CNN that the deportation flight arrived in Venezuela without incident and that all undocumented foreign nationals on board were returned to their country of origin.
The spokesperson added that “once an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for that person.”
‘Not sacks of potatoes’
Núñez – a lawyer herself – says her fight is far from over. She says she will continue speaking out on social media and plans to further her legal education so she can pursue justice over her son’s death.
She’s calling for the Venezuelan government to be more transparent toward grieving families looking for their loved ones and to implement safer, more efficient and humane protocols for Venezuelan deportees with no criminal records. She laments that deportees like her son couldn’t be immediately released upon return to the country – held at the mercy of bureaucratic processes.
“They are not sacks of potatoes. They are human beings. They are handing over human beings,” she said.
“All I ask God is that these deaths not go unpunished, because my son was not a criminal.”
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