Speaker
Katie Fang
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
The ICE deportation flight from Miami to Simón Bolívar Airport carried 146 people, including 19 women and 7 children, landing hours before the earthquake.
ICE flew 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and 7 children, from Miami to Simón Bolívar Airport on the morning of June 24. They were bused to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira. Hours later, the earthquake struck and the hotel collapsed, leaving approximately 140 people unaccounted for and likely dead.
MeidasTouch's Katie Fang broke down the timeline: the ICE flight from Miami, the transfer to Hotel Santuario in La Guaira, and the devastating earthquake that followed. The hotel's name — 'sanctuary' in Spanish — made the tragedy even more bitter. Fang drew a direct line from Trump's deportation policy to the deaths.
CNN confronted Congressman Carlos Jiménez with the news that 150 Venezuelans his policies helped deport were at the earthquake epicenter when it struck. His response: they were deported legally, and what happened after is just 'an act of God.' Nobody could have foreseen an earthquake, he said — despite months of seismic warnings.
Diosdado Cabello — Venezuela's interior minister and the enforcer blocking earthquake aid and rescue workers — has a $25 million US government bounty on him for narcoterrorism. Trump rails publicly against narcoterrorists while privately backing the very man the DEA is hunting.
María Corina Machado flew to Curaçao to try to reach Venezuela after the earthquakes. The Trump administration refused to acknowledge her diplomatic status, forcing her to return to the US. She has no Venezuelan passport, and Trump's State Department won't provide credentials — all while Trump dismisses her efforts as a 'publicity stunt.'
Trump claims credit for $100 million in Venezuelan earthquake aid. But that money flows to Delcy Rodriguez and Diosdado Cabello — not the people. Meanwhile, the Trump regime has extracted over $5 billion in Venezuelan oil revenue. This isn't humanitarian policy; it's a resource extraction deal disguised as diplomacy.
Congresswoman María Salazar demanded that Delcy Rodriguez stop blocking US aid, praising El Salvador's Bukele as more effective than Venezuela's interim president. Ben Meiselas skewered the contradiction: Salazar is a Trump sycophant who enabled the very policies propping up the Delcy regime she's now criticizing.
CNN pressed Congressman Jiménez on whether Delcy Rodriguez's government is capable of managing the earthquake response. He admitted it isn't, called her the 'interim dictator,' and said the US should condition aid on democratic reforms. Ben Meiselas: you ARE the regime, and you still don't see it.
Dozens of volunteers working rescue operations confronted Venezuelan regime soldiers who were carrying surveillance equipment instead of helping search for survivors. With the Delcy government failing to organize any meaningful response, ordinary Venezuelans have been forced to run their own rescue missions.
The US Supreme Court ruled that Temporary Protected Status effectively does not exist if the president doesn't want it to. That means more Venezuelans currently in the US are now eligible for deportation — back to a country in the middle of a catastrophic earthquake crisis with a regime blocking aid.
A magnitude 7.2 struck north-central Venezuela on June 24, followed 39 seconds later by a 7.5 in virtually the same spot. With 2,000 confirmed dead, 10,000+ injured, 58,000 buildings destroyed, and tens of thousands missing, Venezuela is facing a catastrophe — and the world's response is being sabotaged.
A Venezuelan regime soldier was caught on camera drinking liquor at the collapsed towers in La Guaira while desperate relatives searched for earthquake victims. The footage is emblematic of a government that is not just failing — it is actively indifferent to the suffering it is supposed to alleviate.
Analysis
What they talk about
- News 100%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
