Ángelo Mejía Meléndez, a 27-year-old Venezuelan, was deported from the U.S. on June 24, 2026, as part of a group of approximately 145-146 Venezuelans. He had been building a life in Miami, working at a pier, where his employer valued his work so highly that they named a new Jet Ski after him. In a recent voice note to his mother, he expressed deep love for her, saying "If I were to be born again, I would want you to be my mother." Hours after landing in Caracas, while being processed in a guarded hotel in La Guaira, powerful twin earthquakes struck and the building collapsed, killing him. His family identified his body by a distinctive pizza tattoo on his arm. His best friend Georgelyss Montes, whom he had said goodbye to four years earlier when he left for the U.S., learned of his death after searching hospitals and morgues. His mother did not learn of his death until days after the earthquakes, when a survivor informed her he had not survived.