Ben Pawlowski
AN ex-US marine convicted of murdering three people in Spain in 2016 has been released to the US as part of a massive prisoner swap involving El Salvador and Venezuela.
Dahud Hanid Ortiz, a Venezuelan-American national convicted last year in Venezuela of a triple murder in Madrid, was one of ten Americans that arrived in Texas last week.
In return, a total of 252 Venezuelans previously detained in the US and interned at a notorious prison in El Salvador were returned to their home country.
The move was celebrated by key figures in President Trump’s government.
In a statement, secretary of state Marco Rubio said: “The United States welcomes home ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela.
“It is unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed US nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process.
“Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.”
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In a tweet that included a picture of the ten former prisoners posing with the American flag, the US Embassy in Venezuela described the move as ‘America First in action’.
But the move means a convicted triple murderer will now be free to walk the streets of the US.
According to El País, Ortiz carried out a violent murder in Madrid in 2016 in a fit of jealousy against his ex-wife.
Ortiz drove to Spain from Germany to track down his former partner’s new lover, Victor Joel Salas, a Madrid-based attorney whom he had previously threatened.
Ortiz entered Salas’ office and instead found two female law firm employees.
He stabbed the two women as he waited for Salas to arrive. When a taxi driver and client of the law firm arrived instead, Ortiz stabbed the man, before setting fire to the offices and fleeing.
Salas arrived shortly after and discovered the three bodies.
The murders prompted an international manhunt after Ortiz – a veteran of the Iraq War – returned to Germany.
He soon fled to Colombia and crossed the border to Venezuela, but was later detained by officials in 2018.
Venezuelan authorities rejected Spanish requests to extradite Ortiz. Instead, he was tried under a Venezuelan court, where he was found guilty of the triple murder and handed a 30-year jail sentence.
Salas told Spanish TV programme Vamos a Ver that he was shocked by news of Ortiz’s release.
“We all feel like we have been deceived, betrayed and let down,” he said.
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“We feel deceived because Dahud Hanid Ortiz was never a political prisoner; he was a murderer who was convicted and sentenced by the Venezuelan authorities. The case record makes it quite clear that he is a criminal.”
In an interview with TeleMadrid, Salas slammed the role of the Spanish government.
“The message they’re sending out is that anyone can come to Spain, kill three people – and get away with it,” he said.
“The governments of Donald Trump and [Nicolas] Maduro have just handed a killer his freedom – someone who is a real danger to society – without anyone bothering to provide a real explanation,” he added.The other American nationals released include Wilbery Joseph Castañeda, Jorge Marceloa Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, Ronaldo Oribio Quintana, Erick Oribio Quintana, Fabian Buglione Reyes, Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo and Juan Jose Faria Bricen, according to CNN.
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