State Department officials have acknowledged in internal emails that they included Dahud Hanid Ortiz in the rescue operation in Venezuela.
Author: La Tabla/Data Journalism Platform, August 5, 2025
Michael Kozak, a senior official for the Western Hemisphere, admitted in emails obtained by The New York Times: “We requested and received 10 releases, including Ortiz.” He added, “We managed to free the damn guy,” after a debate on whether to omit his name from the official announcement.
The correspondence from July 18 confirms that the selection of prisoners was solely a U.S. decision, not Venezuela’s. Kozak justified this by saying that although Ortiz was “undesirable,” his inclusion reflected the real count.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially celebrated the release of “10 Americans,” but the Department later corrected it to “9 innocents.” Ortiz, a veteran expelled from the military and convicted in Venezuela of killing three people in Madrid (2016), now lives freely in the U.S.