Venezuela-US prisoner swap: Freed American was serving 30-year sentence for triple murder; US aware of conviction

One of the ten Americans released from Venezuela last week in a prisoner swap was a convicted killer serving a 30-year sentence, Spanish and Venezuelan officials have confirmed.

Dahud Hanid Ortiz was jailed in Venezuela for the 2016 murder of three people inside a Madrid law office. As per Spanish interior minister, the 54-year-old Ortiz, had entered the firm looking for a specific lawyer, who headed the office.

However, the official was not there at the time. Ortiz then fatally stabbed two female staff members and a client.

Although he was arrested in Venezuela two years later, Ortiz was never extradited to Spain. He was sentenced on January 9, 2024, in Venezuela.

Despite being informed of Ortiz’s conviction, US officials went ahead with his inclusion in the swap, according to Venezuela’s justice minister Diosdado Cabello. A US official familiar with the matter confirmed that Washington knew of Ortiz’s past, but still opted to secure his release.

The prisoner exchange saw 10 Americans freed in return for over 200 Venezuelan migrants, who had been deported from the US and transferred to a high-security prison in El Salvador.

Eight of the Americans were officially classed by Washington as “wrongfully detained.” Ortiz was not classified in the category, ABC news reported.

Officials said the primary objective was to get US citizens out of Venezuela’s notoriously harsh prison system, even if that meant freeing a man once convicted of a triple killing.