The case of Dahud Hanid Ortiz, a US-Venezuelan citizen brought home in Trump’s prisoner swap

A US State Department photo shows Americans and US residents imprisoned in Venezuela being returned to the US. Dahud Hanid Ortiz is at the centre, third from the right, holding a small flag and wearing a grey cap. Photo US State Department

It’s been nearly a week since Dahud Hanid Ortiz, sentenced by a Venezuelan court to 30 years in prison for a gruesome triple murder, was last seen publicly - grinning triumphantly as he arrived in Texas, having been freed through an expansive deal brokered at the behest of United States President Donald Trump.

Since then, as the disturbing details of Hanid Ortiz’s past have come to light, the Trump Administration has refused to disclose his whereabouts or explain why a convicted killer was included in a prisoner swap touted by the White House as fulfilment of Trump’s promise to liberate Americans wrongfully detained abroad.

A person with knowledge of the case said that Hanid Ortiz was in the United States and not being detained. This person, like some others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

The imbroglio has angered the governments of Spain, where Hanid Ortiz was investigated for the 2016 killings, according to court documents, and Germany, which helped the Spanish authorities in the inquiry.

The dearth of information being shared from Washington also is sowing fear among the victims’ families, who say they are terrified at the prospect that he is walking free.

“The US has been completely silent, not giving information to anyone,” Victor Joel Salas Covenas, a lawyer in Spain who was targeted by Hanid Ortiz in the 2016 plot, told the Washington Post today. “At this moment, no one knows Dahud’s whereabouts. So the fear is real, isn’t it? Of course.”

Hanid Ortiz, 54, had been left behind on previous swaps brokered by both the Trump and Biden administrations, said a US official with knowledge of internal discussions in the wake of his release.

The Administration’s suspected failure to properly vet Hanid Ortiz before allowing him to board the Gulfstream jet that left Caracas for Texas on July 18 also has caused a rift within the State Department, which led the negotiations central to last week’s prisoner swap.

The US official acknowledged that Hanid Ortiz’s inclusion in the release was “ruffling a lot of feathers” at the department because the dual US-Venezuelan citizen was never on lists of Americans whom the Trump Administration sought from Venezuelan authorities.

“It seems like no one was checking closely,” said the official.

Spokespeople for the State Department and White House have cited “privacy reasons” for refusing to address the growing maelstrom surrounding Hanid Ortiz’s release.

In response to questions, Administration officials issued a statement saying, “The US had the opportunity to secure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, many of whom reported being subjected to torture and other harsh conditions”.

Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s Interior Minister, said yesterday on his weekly broadcast that the Venezuelan Government had warned US officials at the airport that they were “taking away a convicted murderer”.

“The US defended their murderer and asked for him to be included,” Cabello alleged.

Efforts to speak with Hanid Ortiz’s family in the US have been unsuccessful.

The questions surrounding Hanid Ortiz have overshadowed what otherwise was seen in Washington as a significant foreign policy win by the Administration.

He was among a group of 10 US citizens and permanent residents released by Venezuela.

The deal also sent to Venezuela more than 250 Venezuelan nationals who had been deported by the US to a megaprison in El Salvador as part of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

The Trump Administration has not identified the Americans released in the deal, though it has acknowledged that eight of the 10 had been classified as “wrongfully detained” by the State Department. That designation enables use of government resources to help free US people it believes should not be imprisoned abroad.

Those classified as “wrongfully detained” are offered support services upon their return at the Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio. Two US officials said that Hanid Ortiz was not offered these services.

And that’s where the trail runs cold.

Hanid Ortiz was last seen publicly as he waved to the news media in San Antonio after arriving with the other released prisoners. His presence among the group was first detected by media outlets in Spain.

He did not get off the plane during a brief stop in El Salvador, said the US official. There, some of the other prisoners met with the country’s President, Nayib Bukele, a key Trump ally, this person said.

The situation is seen as pressing, given the nature of the crimes for which Hanid Ortiz was convicted, which were detailed in a Venezuelan court last year.

According to court records, Hanid Ortiz had been living in Germany when he came to suspect his wife was having a relationship with Salas Covenas, the lawyer in Madrid.

The court found that Hanid Ortiz travelled to Spain to take revenge on the lawyer, concealing his visit by recruiting a friend to pretend to be him at home so he had an alibi.

When he arrived at Salas Covenas’ law office, Hanid Ortiz asked two employees to contact the lawyer, saying he was exploring a lucrative business deal, court records show.

The two women were killed with a knife and a blunt object before the slaying of a man who arrived at the law office to pick up some documents, an apparent instance of mistaken identity, the court records say.

The court found that Hanid Ortiz then set fire to the law office in a bid to hide the crime. It was his accomplice in Germany who revealed the plot to authorities, court records say. The court documents also show that Hanid Ortiz admitted to the crime in emails to his sister-in-law.

“I did horrible things without wanting to, or whatever. Believe me, people lose their minds - I did,” he wrote in one email contained in the court records documenting his prosecution and conviction.

Hanid Ortiz was arrested after fleeing to Venezuela in 2018, court records show. He was in possession of three national identity cards, one in his name and two bearing other names, according to the court records.

Venezuela’s constitution bars extradition of citizens, so instead he was tried in a Venezuelan court with Spanish and German officials supplying evidence. He was convicted and sentenced last year.

Though born in Venezuela, court records show that Hanid Ortiz served in the US Army for more than 17 years and became a US citizen.

He moved with the Army to Germany, where court documents show he was court-martialled and convicted of using a fraudulent address in New York City to claim housing allowances for his family, who had moved with him overseas.

His release back to the US has caught senior government officials in Spain and Germany completely caught off guard, according to the US official familiar with discussions about Hanid Ortiz occurring at the State Department.

The Spanish and German embassies declined to comment. The US generally does not extradite its own citizens to face crimes in foreign nations.

Salas Covenas, the Spanish lawyer, said he was first contacted on Monday by German police. They told him Hanid Ortiz was at a military base in Texas and that it was “very likely he would be released”, Salas Covenas said.

“The only thing we know for sure is that he got off the plane; a camera caught him laughing,” he added.

“Obviously, he is mocking the entire American, European and Venezuelan judicial systems.”