Ex-marine convicted of killing three people released to US in prisoner swap

A Venezuelan American murderer and ex-US marine, who killed three people in Spain in 2016, was released to the US during last Friday’s high-profile prisoner swap between the US, El Salvador and Venezuela, according to media and NGO reports.

Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who was convicted last year in Venezuela of a triple homicide in Madrid, is one of the 10 US nationals that arrived in Texas last Friday.

“The United States welcomes home ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela,” Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said in a statement after the exchange.

“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.”

Ortiz had been tried, convicted and sentenced last year in Venezuela of the murders. The White House did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment by time of publication.

A state department spokesperson did not discuss specifics of Ortiz’s case when asked by the Guardian.

“The United States had the opportunity to secure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, many of whom reported being subjected to torture and other harsh conditions,” the state department spokesperson said. “For privacy reasons, I won’t get into the details of any specific case.”

Ortiz can be seen in two separate images, shared by a state department social media account. In one image, Ortiz is smiling and looking at the camera while sitting on a plane.

Last week, the US state department, coordinating with the Salvadorian and Venezuelan governments, participated in a large-scale prisoner swap between the three countries. A total of 252 Venezuelans, previously detained in the US and expelled to a notorious Salvadorian prison under the Alien Enemies Act, were returned to Venezuela. In exchange, the US received 10 American nationals who were detained in Venezuela. Among them was Ortiz.

The Venezuelan NGO, Foro Penal, which tracks the movement of political prisoners in the country, released a notice on Monday, mere days after the prisoner swap, confirming the release of the 10 American prisoners. But, in their statement, they clarified that only nine of the US nationals released were “political prisoners”.

“One of the 10 Americans/residents, who were formerly detained, was not classified as a political prisoner, which is why we only documented nine formerly detained,” the organization wrote, alluding to Ortiz’s case.

Ortiz carried out a violent murder in Madrid, Spain, in 2016 which made international headlines. According to press reports, in a fit of jealousy, Ortiz drove from Germany to Spain to track down his ex-wife’s new partner, Víctor Joel Salas, an attorney based in Madrid. Ortiz had previously threatened Salas, a Spanish newspaper reported.

Ortiz entered Salas’s office and instead found two women, employees of the law firm. He stabbed the two women and waited for Salas to enter the office. When a taxi driver and client of the law firm entered, Ortiz stabbed the man, set fire to the law firm’s offices and fled. Salas arrived shortly thereafter and discovered the three bodies, El País reported.

The ex-marine and Iraq war veteran quickly left Spain and arrived in Germany shortly after the murders. Spanish officials, who investigated the case, began an international manhunt to track him down, but due to bureaucratic holdups, German police were unable to arrest him. Ortiz fled to Colombia and crossed the border into Venezuela, where he was later caught by officials in 2018.

Despite Spanish authorities’ requests for Ortiz’s extradition, Venezuela refused, deciding to try him for the murders there because he had been a Venezuelan citizen. In January 2024, he was sentenced by a Venezuelan court to 30 years in prison for the triple murder.

This Friday, Ortiz was released to the US and arrived in Texas on a flight, welcomed with open arms by Trump administration officials.

Salas, who was almost killed by Ortiz, told the Spanish TV program Vamos a Ver on Tuesday that he and the victims’ families had been shocked by news of Ortiz’s release.

“We all feel like we’ve been deceived, betrayed and let down,” he said. “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’s a criminal.”

Salas also questioned how José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – the former Spanish prime minister and a mediator between Venezuela and the US – could have acted as he did knowing “who it was that he was freeing”. He called on Zapatero and others who had been “kind enough to free someone who murdered three people” to take all necessary action to “undo this injustice”.

The lawyer said he and the victims’ families were afraid Ortiz could decide to return to Spain.

“The fear’s always there,” he told the TV programme. “The surprising thing in all this is that it was the German authorities who contacted me to say they were activating red alerts so that he’s not allowed back into the Schengen area.”

Salas renewed his criticism of the Spanish government in an interview with TeleMadrid, saying the authorities had neither informed him of the murderer’s release, nor offered him protection. “The message they’re sending out is that anyone can come to Spain, kill three people – and get away with it,” he said.

The lawyer added that “the governments of Donald Trump and Maduro have just handed a killer his freedom – someone who’s a real danger to society – without anyone bothering to provide a real explanation”.

In March of this year, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, declaring that the Tren de Aragua gang was invading the US at the behest of the Venezuelan government. Hundreds of Venezuelan men, accused of being gang members, were quickly expelled to El Salvador and detained in the notorious Cecot prison.

The accusations that the men were all gang members was based on flimsy evidence by homeland security officials. After the quick and quiet expulsion to El Salvador, news organizations began revealing the identities of some of the men, including a gay Venezuelan makeup artist who was seeking asylum in the US.

“In the four months that the men were imprisoned in CECOT, the Trump administration repeatedly insisted that they were not under US custody,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst with the American Immigration Council, in a blogpost. “Rather, they claimed that El Salvador maintained sole custody over the men and the United States had no control over their fate.”

Reichlin-Melnick points out that the prisoner swap undermines the US’s past statements, especially with the state department taking credit over the exchange, saying the deal happened “thanks to President Trump’s leadership”.

The American nationals detained in Venezuela made a quick stop in El Salvador before being flown into Texas. The 252 Venezuelan men detained by the US and El Salvador were flown to Venezuela.

The American nationals released include Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, Ronald Oribio Quintana, Erick Oribio Quintana, Fabian Buglione Reyes, Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo, Juan Jose Faria Bricen and Ortiz, per CNN.

Although the nature of their arrests in Venezuela is not entirely known, one particular case stands out. Castañeda was detained by Venezuelan authorities in August 2024, along with two other Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen. Although the US government and his family have repeatedly claimed Castañeda was in Venezuela for a personal trip, the Venezuelan government accused the group of men of participating in a CIA-led plot to overthrow the government and assassinate the president, Nicolás Maduro. Records accessed by Military.com confirmed Castañeda was a Navy Seal at the time of his arrest.

Earlier this month it was reported that the prisoner swap deal had been under way for some time, but that miscommunication between Trump administration officials botched it, the New York Times reported.

The US government has engaged in a number of prisoner swaps with Venezuela in recent years. Under the Biden administration in 2022, the US swapped seven Americans in exchange for two of Maduro’s nephews. In 2023, the Venezuelan government released 10 American nationals and a US-wanted fugitive, for the exchange of Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally and former US government informant. And earlier this year, Venezuela freed six Americans after a Trump administration envoy met with Maduro.

Officials accused Ortiz of unsuccessfully attempting to pay Venezuelan authorities so that he could be included in the 2023 prisoner swap related to Saab, according to reporting from a Venezuelan newspaper.