One of many 10 Americans or residents freed by the federal government of Nicolás Maduro in a current high-profile prisoner trade with the USA was a fugitive convicted of a triple homicide in Spain, in response to stories by Venezuelan and Spanish media retailers.
Dahud Hanid Ortiz, 54, a former U.S. Marine born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, was convicted of killing three folks in Madrid in 2016. He was sentenced by a Venezuelan courtroom to 30 years in jail on July 22, in response to courtroom paperwork and statements by the victims’ households.
Ortiz, who holds U.S. and German citizenship, was amongst these repatriated to the USA on July 18 as a part of a prisoner swap. The deal concerned the discharge of 252 Venezuelan nationals who had been held in a maximum-security jail in El Salvador, a lot of them accused by U.S. officers of allegedly being criminals or a part of the scary Tren de Aragua gang.
Ortiz is at present believed to be in Texas, the place he landed after his launch. As of press time, the U.S. State Division had not offered details about his authorized standing, or whether or not he stays in custody.
A former fight veteran, Ortiz served in Iraq and South Korea and was awarded the Purple Coronary heart. Nonetheless, he was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army after being discovered responsible of falsifying paperwork associated to his residence and navy document.
After being discharged from the marines, his private life unraveled. His relationship with a German physician, Irina Trippel, crumbled, and when she started a brand new love life with Peruvian lawyer, Víctor Yoel Salas Cobeñas, the previous Marine reacted with obsessive fury.
On June 22, 2016, Ortiz executed a meticulous and bloody plan in Madrid, in response to courtroom paperwork. He confirmed up on the lawyer’s workplace and, mistaking an Ecuadorian shopper for his romantic rival, murdered him.
He then attacked and killed two girls who labored within the workplace: Maritza Osorio Riverón, a secretary, and Elisa Consuegra Gálvez, a lawyer and Salas’s companion. Earlier than fleeing, he set fireplace to the workplace and left a faux enterprise card with the brand of a supposed Mexican cartel, trying to mislead the investigation.
Following the assault, Ortiz fled Spain. A global arrest warrant was issued, and he was ultimately detained in 2018 by Venezuelan authorities throughout a routine safety operation within the state of Bolívar. For years, Ortiz was held within the Caracas headquarters of Venezuela’s Navy Counterintelligence Directorate, initially beneath suspicion of espionage.
In December 2021, Venezuelan and worldwide media revealed Ortiz’s identification and the costs towards him. Based on media stories, he had been utilizing false identities and talking a number of languages whereas detained, together with Spanish, English, German and Russian.
He was tried and sentenced in Venezuela relatively than in Spain for the crimes dedicated in Madrid as a result of the Venezuelan Structure prohibits the extradition of Venezuelan-born residents, however the nation’s legal guidelines permits Venezuelan residents to be prosecuted for crimes dedicated overseas.
Ortiz was sentenced in January 2024 to 30 years in jail, the utmost sentence offered for in Venezuelan regulation, on expenses of murder and arson.
On June 1 of this yr, Ortiz was faraway from his cell and brought to a separate location the place he recorded video messages addressed to U.S. officers, claiming to be sick and with out entry to meals or drugs. Sources aware of the state of affairs mentioned he was instructed to observe a ready script.
The choice to incorporate Ortiz within the prisoner trade has drawn criticism from kinfolk of the victims. Salas, the Madrid-based lawyer whose regulation workplace was the positioning of the assault, spoke publicly after receiving affirmation of Ortiz’s sentence.
“All of us really feel deceived, betrayed and defrauded,” Salas mentioned throughout an interview with the Spanish tv program Vamos a Ver. “Dahud Hanid Ortiz was by no means a political prisoner. He was a convicted and sentenced assassin. The courtroom paperwork make that completely clear.”
Salas additionally questioned the involvement of former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who reportedly performed a mediating function within the negotiation between Venezuela and the USA. He urged all events concerned to take steps to acknowledge and rectify what he described as a miscarriage of justice.
© 2025 Miami Herald.
Go to miamiherald.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
© Copyright 2025 Miami Herald. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
