America sent them to Venezuela – hours later an earthquake struck

Flight passenger Daniel Alejandro Nunez, 28, was struggling to make sense of the conflicting accounts of his mother’s family, who called him back to Venezuela while he was still in government custody.

“We looked for him in hospitals, morgues – everywhere,” his stepfather, Jose Alejandro Abache, told BBC Mundo.

For families who have been separated for years by migration, the possibility of losing their loved ones – so soon after being returned against their will – is unimaginable.

Darwin Serrano Lopez’s wife, Mildry Sarazo, hadn’t seen her husband in three years — and on Monday, he didn’t tell their nine- and 15-year-old daughters about anything.

She was waiting for evidence – and the body of her husband “did not want to return” from the US.

“We want to bury our relatives,” she added.

But 164 passengers on other flights survived the hotel collapse and were shocked by a series of events in the country they thought they had left behind.

Lizbeth Portillo, 58, was sleeping in a second-floor room with 16 other women when the building collapsed.

“I saw the woman next to me start to fall … everyone was screaming for help,” she told the Associated Press news agency.

“I was born again – God gave me a second chance.”

Days passed before some families received the news that their loved ones had taken their lives.

When relatives found Anderson Daniel Salcedo, 22, at the University Hospital of Caracas, he immediately traveled to the Venezuelan capital after alerting his mother, Reuters reported.

Salcedo had been living in the US for three years, sending money home before he got on Flight 164 – then was trapped in the wreckage for two days.

“He spent 40 hours in that hole, he didn’t have an ID, he didn’t have any documents, so they couldn’t recognize him,” his grandmother, Marlin Lozano, told Reuters.

“We had no way to talk to him and we didn’t know anything.”

Lozano added: “Here we are praying, asking God to give him strength and courage.” “We know he’ll never be the same – his legs are gone – but we love him the way he is.”