American Convicted of Murder Among Those Trump Rescued From Venezuela Prison

Americas|American Convicted of Murder Is Freed by Trump From Venezuela Prison

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 and Venezuelan court records reviewed by The New York Times.

The official asked not to be identified speaking publicly about the case.

Mr. Hanid Ortiz was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2023 for a triple homicide committed in Madrid in 2016, according to the court documents and Spanish news media coverage.

The court records say that Mr. Hanid Ortiz is a former member of the U.S. military who had planned to murder a lawyer who had a relationship with his wife. But on the June day in 2016 when he arrived at the lawyer’s office in Madrid and did not find his target, he killed two women there, as well as a man who he mistakenly believed was the lawyer.

The deaths were violent, according to an extradition request by the Spanish government that was included in the Venezuelan records. One of the women, Elisa Consuegra, was killed with a large knife or machete. The second woman, Maritza Osorio, and the man, were likely killed with an iron bar. Afterward, Mr. Hanid Ortiz lit the office on fire in an attempt to cover up his crime, then fled to Germany and eventually to Venezuela.

The Spanish government attempted to extradite Mr. Hanid Ortiz, but the Venezuelan Constitution prohibits the extradition of Venezuelan citizens. This led Mr. Hanid Ortiz to be tried inside Venezuela, which allows Venezuelans to be tried for crimes committed outside the country.