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The Trump administration said it was protecting Americans unjustly held abroad. One of the rescued men, Dahud Hanid Ortiz, killed three people, according to court documents.
July 23, 2025, 10:59 a.m. ET
When the State Department secured the release of 10 Americans and permanent legal residents from a Venezuela prison last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the effort as part of an effort to safeguard the well-being of Americans unjustly held abroad.
But one of the men released from the prison, an American-Venezuelan dual national named Dahud Hanid Ortiz, had been convicted in Venezuela for the murder of three people in Spain in 2016, according to an official at the prosecutor’s office in Madrid. The official asked not to be identified speaking publicly about the case.
Mr. Hanid Ortiz was sentenced in 2023 to 30 years in prison for a triple homicide committed in Madrid in 2016, according to Venezuelan court documents and Spanish news media coverage, which also indicate that Spain had tried to extradite him.
The Venezuelan Constitution prohibits the extradition of Venezuelan citizens, leading Mr. Hanid Ortiz to be tried inside Venezuela, which allows Venezuelans to be tried for crimes committed outside the country.
Two other people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter also confirmed Mr. Hanid Ortiz’s conviction and extraction from Venezuela by U.S. authorities.
Representatives from the State Department did not immediately respond to questions about why Mr. Hanid Ortiz was released and whether he was allowed to go free once he arrived in the United States.
The killings of the three people took place in the Usera neighborhood of Madrid, according to the court documents.
José Bautista contributed reporting from Madrid.
Julie Turkewitz is the Andes Bureau Chief for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia, covering Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
