The United States Department of State does not comment on why a man convicted of murdering three people in Madrid was one of the 10 American citizens released by Venezuela last week as part of an exchange of prisoners.
Dahud Hanid Ortiz, an American veteran who served in Iraq, was sentenced in absence in Spain for killing two Cuban women and an Ecuadorian man in 2016.
Ortiz, who is an American citizen born in Venezolan, fled to the South American country after committing the crime. The Venezuelan government rejected the extradition application of Spain because its constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens. Instead, Ortiz was tried in Venezuela.
A state department spokesman wrote in a statement sent by email to NBC News that “the United States had the opportunity to ensure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, many of whom informed having been submitted to torture and other hard conditions. For privacy reasons, I will not go into the details of any specific case.”
The Venezuelan government last week released the 10 Americans, along with Venezuelan political prisoners, in exchange for more than 250 Venezuelan migrants that the Trump administration had sent to a notorious Megaprison in El Salvador in March. The agreement of three countries involved the governments of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and President Donald Trump.
“Every American unfairly detained in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,” said Secretary of State Frame Rubio in a statement last week.
Two photos posted by the State Department show on Friday the 10 Americans released, including Ortiz, which hold an American flag.
Ortiz received a purple heart and was unloaded dishonorably after making a false official statement and theft, among other positions.
Ortiz was married to a German woman who met while he was parked at the base of the United States in Schweinfurt, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. They later separated and she developed a relationship with a lawyer in Madrid. Ortiz is accused of presenting himself in the legal office and killing three of his employees. According to the reports, the lawyer with which Ortiz’s wife had a relationship was not in the office at that time.
