The multiple murderer to which Trump's government repatriated the United States in his last department of prisoners with Venezuela

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, celebrated the exchange that allowed Ortiz to get out of jail along with the rest of the released with a trill in which he pointed out that “thanks to the leadership” of President Trump “ten Americans who were arrested in Venezuela are now on their way to freedom.”

He did not mention that among those released there was a person who had been convicted of a multiple macho dye murder committed in Spain.

In response to a BBC Mundo consultation about this case, a state department spokesman declined to confirm if Hanid had been released and said that “for privacy reasons he would not go into details of any specific case.”

But other sources confirmed that Hanid had been effectively released thanks to the agreement reached between the governments of the United States, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Internal Relations of Venezuela, said Wednesday that Hanid Ortiz had been one of those released and that the United States took to a “convict murderer.”

The Venezuelan NGO Criminal Forum, which follows the situation of opponents and activists in Venezuela, told BBC Mundo that it could “confirm that Ortiz was released and that it did not consist as a political prisoner.”

The journalist Sebastiana Barráez, who has followed Ortiz's journey for years, told BBC Mundo: “I immediately recognized it when I saw the photo of the released.”

Citing sources from the State Department, the CNN chain spread a relationship of the prisoners delivered by Venezuela to the United States in which the name of Ortiz appeared, although with an errata.

Other American and Spanish media have confirmed the news.

Ortiz landed on Friday with the rest of those released at a military airport on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas.

Since then, his whereabouts are unknown.

According to the instruction of the Madrid Court that investigated the crimes committed by Ortiz, he traveled to Spain from Germany, where he lived with his wife, of German nationality, with the intention of killing the lawyer of Peruvian origin Víctor Joel Salas, with which she had initiated a love relationship.

Ortiz demanded both of them to put an end to their relationship, but did not access and he decided to take revenge.

On June 22, 2016, he broke into the office that the lawyer directed in the Madrid district of Usera with the intention of killing him. Salas was not there that day, but Ortiz ended up with the Cuban Elisa Consuegra, employee of the firm, already blows with Maritza Osorio, also Cuban and employee of the office.

A few minutes later, he had the misfortune of appearing there Ecuadorian Pepe Castillo Vega, a client who came to collect his residence permit. Ortiz took him for his wife's new couple and kill him with him too.

The murders consumed, set the office on fire with the intention of eraseing his trail and escaped to Germany.

The Spanish police identified him as the author of the crimes and managed to locate him there, but the authorities lost his trail.

According to his Venezuelan judicial file, Hanid Ortiz was arrested in October 2018 in Caracas by agents of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelling (DGCIM) of Venezuela after confirming that a red alert of Interpol had been notified against him.

The Spanish authorities then requested their extradition to respond in Spain for deaths, but the Supreme Court of Venezuela failed that being Venezuelan could not be extradited and had to be tried in that country for the crimes accused of which it was accused: three murders and a fire crime.

Finally, a Caracas court sentenced him in 2024 to 30 years in prison.

A year later, he has been released.

The news of the exchange of prisoners jumped on Friday night.

Thus, a group of 252 Venezuelans who were held in the controversial center for confinement of terrorism (CECOT) of El Salvador, where the US government has deported in recent months hundreds of foreigners arrested in their country, returned to Caracas.

The same day, the United States embassy in Venezuela published a photo of the 10 Americans who were going to be repatriated, among which Ortiz was.

The released prisoners stopped in El Salvador, where they were received by the Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele, who also congratulated himself on the treatment that his release had allowed.

Ortiz was caught greeting the cameras after getting out of the official plane that left all the repatriated in Texas.

It is unknown how and why his name was included in a list of prisoners considered “politicians” if he served for common crimes.

Diosdado Cabello said Tuesday that the United States “asked to get him (in the exchange), and Jorge Rodríguez (head of Venezuelan government) told them that he is a murderer. They know he is a murderer.”

And the former president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whom Maduro publicly thanked his role as a mediator in the negotiations for the exchange of prisoners, told the newspaper “El País” that he did not know the identity of the Americans who were going to be released.

“That list, as is evident, is from the United States,” Zapatero said.

A state department spokesman just assured Wednesday that “the United States had the opportunity to ensure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, many of whom denounced having been submitted to torture and harsh conditions.”

Born in Caracas in August 1970, Ortiz obtained the citizenship of the United States and served in the Marines Corps of that country, with which he fought in the Iraq war.

According to a profile published by the Washington PostOrtiz provided active service for 17 years and was awarded after being injured in Iraq. As a member of the US army he was sent to different countries. In his time in Germany he met the German woman with whom she married already whose new couple wanted to kill.

His military career did not end well. An American martial court condemned him for falsifying documents and data of his history to get fraudulently promotions and benefits. It was also ruled that he had provided a false direction from New York to obtain housing aid when he actually lived with his family in Germany.

Hanid Ortiz was last seen at the Military Airport on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, where he landed next to the rest of the released by the United States government.

BBC Mundo did not respond to a consultation to the National Security Department about whether measures had been taken to avoid involving a threat to the American public.

The Spanish authorities have not publicly referred to their case.

Legal sources cited in Spanish media indicated the difficulty involved in taking additional measures on crimes that have already been juice.

Víctor Joel Salas, the lawyer who had a relationship with Ortiz's wife and who was saved from the attack, told the Spanish media that it was the German police who first informed him of Ortiz's liberation. “They told me they were trying to give her protection already her family.”

Salas said to have “fear”, and asked that the liberation of Ortiz “be amended” and “justice be done to the three families he has destroyed.”

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