The last time Georgelyss Montes saw her best friend Angelo Mejía Meléndez was four years ago, at a goodbye party before he left for the U.S."We were like, 'you are stupid for leaving us!" she joked.Last week she got word he was coming home, unexpectedly, as a deportee.Mejía Meléndez was one of 146 Venezuelan nationals who landed in Caracas after being deported from the U.S.
on Wednesday.Passengers on that plane, which included women and children, were being processed in a guarded hotel in La Guaira, when powerful twin earthquakes struck, according to family members.The building they were in pancaked.The family of Mejía Meléndez had planned to celebrate with him once back home.
Instead, they had to spend days searching hospitals and morgues.Ultimately, they identified his body by a distinctive pizza tattoo on his arm."We grew up together," Montes said.
"It's so hard."Mejía Meléndez was building a life in Miami.He worked at a pier.
He was happy to be in the city, near the ocean.In a recent voice note to his mom, Mejía Meléndez told her how much he loved her.
He also shared that his bosses had bought a new jet ski, and that they named it after him."They told me I was doing a good job, that they loved me — things are going well!" he told his mother."I love you so much — if I were to be born again, I would want you to be my mother."Of the 146 deportees aboard that flight, there are conflicting accounts of how many survived the earthquakes.The Venezuelan agency in charge of transporting the deportees declined to tell NPR how many have survived.
In a message through WhatsApp to NPR, the agency said families have been informed of the status of their loved ones; a statement some family members dispute.Alonso Guanipa Toyo told NPR his brother, 32-year-old Víctor, is among the missing deportees."The government is not doing anything," Alonso Guanipa Toyo said."My family is looking for him in the hospitals, in the shelters, in the morgues."He said his broth...