The plane from Miami landed in Caracas on Wednesday morning. On board were 146 Venezuelans, seven of them children, who had been deported from the United States.
The group was taken to a hotel in the coastal town of La Guaira. Just hours later, two earthquakes struck the region, leaving at least 1,700 people dead. The hotel where the deportees were staying collapsed, according to CNN.
Many of them are now believed to be buried in the rubble. Luis Armando Dasilva is waiting for news about his sister Amanda Donizete, whom he has not heard from since she was put on the plane in Miami.
"They (local authorities) are not answering where she is. If she is in the hospital or at the morgue," the brother tells CNN.
Since October, the US has been deporting hundreds of Venezuelans every week.
