标签： South America

MIAMI — A catastrophic double earthquake that devastated central coastal Venezuela left dozens of recently deported Venezuelan migrants caught in a deadly disaster, after they were held in a collapsed hotel just hours after their deportation flight landed from the United States, surviving deportees have confirmed. The tragedy unfolded Wednesday, when two major earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 hit the coast, with the La Guaira region emerging as one of the hardest-hit areas. The official death toll from the Venezuelan government now tops 1,700.

A week after two powerful back-to-back earthquakes devastated Venezuela’s northern coastal region, hopes of pulling more survivors from collapsed buildings are rapidly fading, as survivors and local volunteers lead most search operations amid widespread criticism of the Venezuelan government’s slow, under-resourced disaster response.

On August 26, a magnitude 7.2 quake and a 7.5 quake hit just 39 seconds apart in the state of La Guaira, located just outside the capital Caracas. The violent twin tremors triggered the collapse of nearly 800 structures, killed more than 1,700 people, and left tens of thousands unaccounted for. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has called the disaster the “most brutal natural catastrophe” in Venezuela’s modern history. On Monday morning, a 4.6 magnitude aftershock rattled already frayed nerves across La Guaira and Caracas, though no additional damage was reported.

In La Guaira, one of the worst-hit port cities, reporters from the BBC observed local residents digging through rubble with only basic hand tools—crowbars, mallets, and pickaxes—hunting for trapped loved ones and neighbors. While uniformed Venezuelan police and military personnel were visible on streets near disaster zones, they were not spotted working to clear rubble or extract survivors. Heavy earth-moving equipment has only arrived sporadically, in most cases reaching collapse sites days after residents began digging, when it was already too late to save trapped people.

Many survivors have already shifted their goals from rescue to recovering remains to give family members a proper burial. Thirty-nine-year-old Carolyn Zerpa, who has been searching for her father and brother by hand, told reporters that pickaxes are barely enough to move heavy debris. “You can’t really do much with just a pickaxe,” she explained. Thirty-two-year-old electrician Ruben Rojas, who has worked through the rubble with only gloves and a hard hat, said even official civil protection teams lack the tools required for large-scale rescue. “The government doesn’t give it. They are just like us, working with their hands,” Rojas said.

Local frustration over the delayed response has been amplified by Venezuela’s ongoing severe economic crisis, which has stretched government resources thin for years. Zuly Marín, a 15-year La Guaira resident who lost her niece and brother-in-law in the disaster, said the slow arrival of rescue teams and heavy equipment directly cost lives. “I think that if they had come sooner, many people could have been saved,” she said. In El Junquito, a mountainous community west of Caracas, residents told Reuters that almost no public officials have reached the area, and local farmers and residents have been the only ones distributing basic food and supplies to displaced families. Thirty-three-year-old resident Keily Ibarra said the community is still waiting for official support to clear debris, inspect damaged structures, and aid impacted families.

Despite the fading odds of finding more survivors, there has been one small recent miracle: on Monday, a joint team of rescue workers from Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador pulled 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas alive from rubble after he had been trapped for more than 100 hours. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed the rescue in an announcement, adding that Cantillo is now receiving specialized medical care, and that rescuers will “continue working with the hope of being able to save more lives.”

The Venezuelan government has taken some formal steps in response to the disaster: Rodríguez announced a special government commission to assess full damage across affected regions, chaired by her brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez. The commission plans to use a color-coded system to classify the safety of damaged buildings and determine when residents can return to their homes, while temporary displacement camps are being set up in the meantime. But the slow on-the-ground response has left most rescue work to local volunteers and international disaster teams, which have mobilized quickly to support the effort.

Multiple countries have pledged substantial new international aid in recent days. The United States has doubled its previous commitment to disaster relief, announcing it will provide more than $300 million to fund emergency medical care, food assistance, clean water and sanitation, temporary shelter, and logistical support. A U.S. Navy frigate, the USS Fort Lauderdale, is currently stationed off the coast of La Guaira, and its crew and Marines are using landing craft to deliver supplies directly to hard-hit coastal areas. The Netherlands plans to send a cargo vessel carrying emergency supplies, while China has pledged nearly $15 million in disaster assistance for Venezuela.

In the devastated coastal state of La Guaira, Venezuela, rescue teams from across the globe are continuing their urgent search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed infrastructure, one week after two consecutive major earthquakes left at least 1,450 people confirmed dead – a death toll authorities warn will continue to climb as recovery work progresses.

The critical 96-hour window, widely recognized as the period when trapped survivors are most likely to be found alive, expired on Sunday evening. But search and rescue personnel on the ground have rejected calls to scale back operations, maintaining the same intensity of search work as they carried out in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Dozens of international teams have joined local Venezuelan crews, bringing specialized expertise and life-saving equipment to the disaster zone, with UK International Search and Rescue (UK ISAR) among the teams supporting the response.

To locate trapped people, rescuers rely on a layered mix of animal instinct and cutting-edge technology, starting with specially trained search dogs whose capabilities experts describe as extraordinary. Lee Ivory, UK ISAR’s deputy national coordinator who has decades of experience responding to major quakes in Haiti, Japan and Nepal, and currently coordinates the UK’s contribution to the Venezuela response from London, explained that canines are trained to detect the unique scent of living humans even when victims are buried 10 meters deep under dense rubble. When a dog picks up a scent, it alerts handlers with a loud, sustained bark, guiding teams to the potential location of a survivor. Trained using human-scented toys as a reward system, the dogs also help navigate collapsed, unstable debris to find viable access points that human rescuers cannot easily reach, added Sakthy Selvakumaran from Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (SARAID), a UK-based charity that deploys experts to large-scale disasters globally.

Next to search dogs, sound-based detection is one of the most effective tools for locating hidden survivors. Rescue teams first pause all activity in an area of debris, call out in local Spanish to ask trapped people to tap or make noise, then listen intently for any response. For deeper victims, teams deploy compact seismic and acoustic listening devices, small sensor nodes connected by wires to monitoring equipment that can pick up even the faint scratch of a fingernail on concrete from inside a collapsed structure. “Even if someone is fully entombed in the building, we can pick up that small movement,” Ivory told the BBC.

For narrow, hard-to-reach gaps in rubble that neither dogs nor human rescuers can access, technical search cameras have become an indispensable tool. Most commonly configured as small camera pods mounted on long rigid or flexible sticks, the devices allow teams to peer deep into voids to spot survivors. High-end models offer 360-degree pan-and-tilt views that can be recorded and reviewed off-site, while two-way video-enabled cameras even let rescuers communicate directly with trapped people to calm them and share updates about the ongoing rescue.

More advanced technology is also being deployed on the ground: UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher confirmed that small, agile “cockroach drones” are being used to map and search large expanses of rubble that are too dangerous for crews to enter. Many teams also carry thermal imaging equipment, which detects the body heat of trapped survivors, warming the surrounding debris enough to show up as a clear heat signature even through walls or layers of concrete, allowing rescuers to spot people who are hidden from direct view.

Once a potential survivor is located, teams rely on a range of heavy and handheld tools to reach them. Handheld gear including disk cutters, hand saws and angle grinders is used to cut through furniture, filing cabinets, reinforced concrete and other obstacles blocking access to voids. For missions that require moving large sections of collapsed multi-story buildings, heavy machinery – including bulldozers, excavators and cranes – is critical, and local Venezuelan emergency teams typically coordinate the deployment of this large equipment across the disaster zone. Even after the passing of the golden 96-hour window, rescue teams remain committed to leaving no stone unturned, holding onto hope that more survivors can be pulled alive from the wreckage.

Early on a Monday morning, just five days after a pair of catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes devastated Venezuela’s northern coastal region, a fresh aftershock rattled the disaster-stricken area, sending panicked residents fleeing into streets already lined with collapsed infrastructure.

According to data from the United States Geological Survey, the tremor registered a magnitude of 4.6 on the Richter scale, hitting at 7:01 a.m. local time roughly 17 miles north of Caraballeda, along Venezuela’s Caribbean coastline. Colombia’s national geological agency recorded a slightly higher magnitude of 5.1, leaving minor discrepancies in official measurements of the seismic event.

The aftershock was felt as far inland as Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, where occupants of multi-story apartment buildings rushed to evacuate. Concepción Hernández, a 51-year-old resident of Caracas’ Chacao municipality, spoke to the lingering anxiety that has gripped communities across the region in the wake of the initial disasters. “Here we are again, back in the street. I don’t know when we’ll have a moment of true peace,” she said.

The tremor also shook the heavily impacted port city of La Guaira, the epicenter of much of the destruction from last week’s quakes. Local teams and international rescuers had already been working around the clock, racing against the clock to pull any remaining survivors from the rubble of fallen buildings when the aftershock hit.

As of Monday, the Venezuelan government has confirmed a death toll of 1,450 from the initial twin earthquakes, with thousands more people still unaccounted for. The national administration has faced mounting public criticism over its slow and insufficient response to the disaster, with grassroots civilian-led rescue efforts often outpacing official operations.

While the window for successful live rescues narrows significantly after the critical 72-hour period following a natural disaster — a threshold that passed over the weekend — rescue teams have not called off their searches. In a statement Sunday evening, Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed that search operations would continue as long as there was any chance of finding survivors. To date, more than 2,600 rescue workers from dozens of countries across the globe have deployed to the affected region, bringing specialized search canines and heavy moving equipment to assist in the effort. Even as hope fades for most families of the missing, small, occasional successful rescues from the debris continue to offer a thin sliver of optimism to the crisis-stricken nation.

In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that has left widespread destruction across parts of Venezuela, a team of BBC correspondents has found itself sharing space with hundreds of displaced survivors taking refuge inside a local baseball stadium. What was once a gathering ground for cheering fans and home to passionate athletic competition has now been converted into an impromptu emergency shelter, crowded with families who lost their homes when the tremor struck.

For these survivors, daily life currently revolves around waiting for official support and relying on the kindness of donors to meet basic needs. Donated sacks of rice, canned produce, and bottled water form the core of their food supplies, while used clothing donated by communities across the country keeps them protected from changing weather. Many survivors share that they cling to cautious hope that national and local authorities will quickly arrange for more suitable temporary housing as the long process of reconstruction gets underway across the affected region.

The makeshift shelter at the baseball stadium highlights the gap between immediate disaster response and long-term recovery in a country already grappling with ongoing economic and infrastructure challenges. While aid organizations and volunteer groups have stepped up to deliver critical supplies, survivors report that consistent, coordinated government support has been slow to arrive, leaving thousands in limbo weeks after the earthquake hit. For the BBC team on the ground, the experience has offered an unfiltered, on-the-ground look at the human cost of natural disaster in one of Latin America’s most vulnerable nations.

In the wake of catastrophic twin earthquakes that ripped through Venezuela last Wednesday, leaving a trail of death and destruction across the nation, a stunning story of survival has captured global attention: 18-day-old Juan David and his mother Dayana Patino were pulled alive from the crumbled concrete of their collapsed apartment building, a miracle that has become a beacon of hope for a country grappling with unimaginable loss.

The disaster has already claimed at least 1,450 lives, with tens of thousands more still unaccounted for. Venezuela’s interim president has called the event the worst natural catastrophe in the nation’s modern history, and while search and rescue operations continue across the hardest-hit regions, expectations of finding additional survivors have faded sharply. It was in this grim context that the story of Patino and her newborn emerged.

Speaking to the BBC from a Caracas clinic just days after her rescue, Patino recounted the terrifying hours she spent trapped underground, clinging to her infant son against all odds. The young mother was doing dishes in her eighth-floor apartment in the northern coastal region of La Guaira when the first tremors struck. Initially expecting only a mild shake, she rushed immediately to cradle her only child, but the force of the quake threw her into a deep rubble pit, pinning her left leg under a heavy concrete slab and trapping her against rock.

“For a moment I felt like I was flying, then like I was sinking into mud and water before I landed in that hole,” Patino told reporters. “I don’t know how I never let go of my baby, even when I was thrown into the dark. I was crushed against fallen furniture, and I could barely move.” After screaming for help to no avail, she quickly made the decision to conserve her strength, only calling out when she heard signs of search teams nearby. Trapped in total darkness, she drew strength from two small miracles: a bible that landed within reach beneath her, and the steady breathing of her newborn son.

Juan David became her reason to hold on, Patino explained. “He gave me the motivation to stay awake and alert. As long as he was alive, I had to stay alive too. I would touch his nose every few minutes just to confirm he was still breathing,” she said. After hours trapped, she finally heard her brother calling her name from above the rubble. Summoning every last bit of her strength, she shouted back, and her family located her, launching a careful, hours-long rescue operation that pulled both mother and baby to safety on Thursday night.

Patino suffered serious injuries to both legs in the collapse, but remarkably, 18-day-old Juan David walked away with only minor scrapes. Patino’s husband Gerson, who had survived the quake by jumping over a safety fence just moments after pulling his car into their driveway, had already given up hope of ever seeing his family alive again. When rescuers pulled the pair out of the rubble, the moment was overwhelming.

“It was a full-on miracle,” Gerson told the BBC. “When I saw the building collapse, I thought they were gone. When I held my son in my arms, I felt like I was born again. I couldn’t believe it was real—life just came flooding back to me.” Footage of the emotional rescue, showing Gerson clinging to his newborn son with tears of relief, has been shared millions of times across social media around the world, turning the tiny baby into a global symbol of resilience amid disaster.

While the family lost their home, every one of their possessions, and are still grieving the disappearance of their pet dog, they say they are focusing on the future. They are currently recovering in hospital, and plan to rebuild their lives from the ground up after the disaster. “We lost almost everything we had, but we are still here together,” Gerson said. “We will build back everything we lost, one step at a time.”

In the wake of a destructive earthquake that left communities across Venezuela reeling, widespread public fury has erupted over the national government’s lackluster response to recovery and survivor assistance efforts, according to senior BBC correspondent Orla Guerin’s on-the-ground reporting from affected regions.

Residents whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed by the seismic event say that state-led teams have moved far too slowly to reach trapped or displaced survivors, leaving vulnerable people waiting days for basic supplies, medical care, and support to locate missing loved ones. Many affected community members have spoken out publicly, sharing accounts of unmet needs and broken promises from government officials that have compounded the trauma of the natural disaster.

The public backlash underscores deep existing frustrations with institutional capacity in Venezuela, where ongoing economic and political instability has already stretched public services thin. For communities already grappling with systemic challenges, the botched recovery effort has amplified calls for greater accountability and faster, more effective support from national authorities.

Four days after a pair of powerful back-to-back earthquakes left northern Venezuela’s coastline in ruins, an international team of rescuers pulled off a devastatingly hoped-for miracle on June 28, 2026: a father and his young son were recovered alive from a collapsed concrete structure, reigniting hope across a region shattered by the worst natural disaster to hit the South American nation in decades.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes that struck on Wednesday carved widespread destruction across swathes of La Guaira state, the hardest-hit area along Venezuela’s northern coast. By Sunday, search efforts had dragged on long past the critical 72-hour window for survivor recovery, and teams had all but abandoned any expectation of finding life under the mountains of rubble that dotted the landscape. The site where the pair was found was little more than an unrecognizable mass of crumbled concrete, indistinguishable from the ruins lining miles of devastated shoreline.

That bleak outlook shifted suddenly when rescuers from Venezuela, the French Civil Security Training and Intervention Regiment (UIISC 7), and the Fairfax County Urban Search & Rescue team from Virginia, the United States spotted faint signs of movement. First, they pulled a dust-caked man, who had been trapped for four full days, from a narrow opening in the rubble. Even after his long entrapment, he was still clinging to his mobile phone; teams loaded him gently onto a black tarp, administered an intravenous drip to rehydrate him, and began moving him toward emergency care. Minutes later, the boy, the man’s young son, was pulled free, shirtless and barely responsive as rescuers passed him carefully over their heads.

“Slow, slow, gentle, gentle,” rescue members chanted in a mix of Spanish and English, as they passed the two survivors through a crowd of onlookers and into a waiting ambulance. When the pair was safely loaded, the assembled team burst into heartfelt applause, a rare moment of joy amid days of grim recovery work.

Associated Press journalists Juan Pablo Arraez and Matías Delacroix, who documented the rescue from the scene, told reporters they had traveled the La Guaira region that morning to watch search efforts, still holding out hope for small miracles. “At this stage many begin to lose hope. You see that in their faces,” Arraez said, as search helicopters circled overhead. “When somebody makes it out alive, this father and son. It’s more than a glimpse, it’s real hope for people.”

Officials confirmed Sunday that the death toll from the earthquakes had reached 1,450, with thousands more injured and dozens still unaccounted for. While the first 48 to 72 hours after a major seismic event are widely considered the most critical for finding living survivors, access to limited water and shelter can allow people to survive far longer. The miracle rescue of the father and son was not the only small bright spot cutting through the overwhelming grief gripping the region: Venezuelan rescue workers also shared a moment of humanity when they poured water into the mouth of a dust-covered dog trapped in concrete cracks, and a woman pulled free after 70 hours of entrapment grinned and waved at cheering crowds as she was loaded into an ambulance.

International rescue teams have deployed to the region to support local search and recovery efforts, with cross-border collaboration turning the tide of hope for communities reeling from the disaster.