标签： South America

Just days after a pair of powerful back-to-back earthquakes devastated large swathes of coastal Venezuela, two 11-year-old boys have been pulled alive from the rubble of collapsed buildings, separated by only hours in dramatic rescue operations that have reignited hope across the disaster zone.

The first child, identified as Moises, was extracted from roughly 3 meters of compacted debris on Saturday following six hours of meticulous, high-risk work by rescue teams, Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management confirmed. Video of the rescue captured the moment Moises was lifted from twisted concrete and metal beams, his eyes covered to shield them from sudden sunlight, as onlooking rescuers erupted in applause. Reuters reported that the boy was located close to the bodies of his mother and sister, who did not survive the disaster.

Within hours of Moises’ rescue, Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez announced that a second 11-year-old boy had been pulled from wreckage in the hard-hit coastal town of Caraballeda. Rodríguez shared a video of the operation on X, showing the child carried on a stretcher down a towering mound of rubble. “In these hours, every life is hope for Venezuela,” she wrote in the accompanying post.

The twin disasters, registering magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck just 39 seconds apart last Wednesday, reducing hundreds of structures to rubble and leaving untold numbers trapped beneath. As of Sunday, official reports have confirmed at least 1,430 deaths, with tens of thousands more still unaccounted for. More than 85 hours have passed since the initial quake, but rescue teams have refused to abandon search efforts, saying survivors can still hold on if they have access to water and food under the debris.

Desperate family members have led informal search efforts alongside professional teams, digging through wreckage by hand when heavy equipment has not arrived. Multiple survivors told the BBC they can hear calls for help from trapped people, but are unable to move heavy concrete slabs on their own.

La Guaira state, the coastal region home to Caraballeda, has suffered the worst damage. Rescue operations have been slowed by ongoing aftershocks, which have added to the terror of displaced residents. “To be honest, it makes you feel kind of nervous. Any little noise… horrible,” 64-year-old bus driver Jesús Andueza told BBC Mundo.

Thousands of people left homeless by the quakes have taken shelter in open spaces, sleeping in their cars or setting up informal camps at local sites including the state airport and Caraballeda’s 18-hole golf course. What was once a carefully maintained recreational space has now been transformed into the main hub of the region’s emergency response: its manicured fairgrounds host a makeshift hospital, a centralized donation sorting center, and a helicopter landing pad that receives supplies and rescue personnel from across Venezuela and around the world. Near the small course lagoon, displaced survivors sift through stacks of donated clothing and boxes of food and medicine to meet their basic needs.

Milagros González, a resident of the badly damaged Caribe neighborhood whose apartment building escaped full collapse, fled to the golf course immediately after the quakes with her two young daughters and two elderly relatives. “I left with my two young daughters and my two elderly relatives. But thank God we got out alive. The building can’t be lived in. But we’re alive, which is what matters,” she said. Like many other survivors, González continues to struggle with psychological aftereffects: every time she lies down, she wakes up dizzy, convinced another quake is starting. “A psychologist just told me that it’s part of the process,” she explained, as her daughters played with dolls on a mattress spread across the grass.

In a Sunday video address, Rodríguez confirmed that a second large emergency hub has been set up at the José María Vargas sports complex in La Guaira, where armed forces are organizing the distribution of relief supplies. “everything is functioning as well as possible during these terrible moments, these terrible hours, that our people are enduring,” she said. “Let them know that no one here is alone, not a single family or individual need feel alone. Our people and our state are here, the social protection system is here, and international solidarity is here.”

Despite official reassurances, frustration has mounted among survivors and local residents, who criticize the government’s initial response as slow and inefficient. Entire neighborhoods in the worst-hit areas of Caribe and Tanaguarena have not yet seen any debris removal work begin, days after the disaster.

In recent days, international rescue teams from Mexico, Spain, Qatar, the United States, and the United Kingdom have arrived to reinforce local search efforts. Tom Fletcher, representing the United Nations, said Saturday that 39 search and rescue teams totaling almost 2,000 personnel and 111 search dogs have been deployed across the disaster zone, alongside specialized medical teams. High-tech tools including small “cockroach drones” are being used to locate signs of life deep in collapsed buildings, boosting the chances of pulling more survivors out alive more than three days after the quakes hit.

A remarkable story of survival has emerged from the devastation wrought by two consecutive major earthquakes that shook Venezuela this Wednesday, bringing with it a note of hope amid overwhelming tragedy. As rescue teams sifted through piles of collapsed concrete and twisted debris in the days following the seismic events, they made a stunning discovery: an 11-year-old boy, trapped beneath the rubble for multiple days, was found alive and pulled to safety.

The double seismic shocks, which hit the South American nation in quick succession, have triggered one of the worst natural disasters the country has faced in recent memory. Official government updates have confirmed that the death toll from the quakes has now climbed to at least 1,430, with hundreds more still reported missing and thousands left homeless as entire communities were reduced to ruins.

Rescue operations have been ongoing around the clock since the earthquakes struck, with first responders, international aid teams, and local volunteers working tirelessly to locate and extract any survivors trapped under destroyed infrastructure. The rescue of the 11-year-old has been hailed as a rare miracle in the aftermath of the catastrophe, boosting the morale of exhausted rescue workers who continue to comb through rubble even as hopes of finding more survivors fade for many missing people.

Infrastructure across the affected region has been left decimated, with homes, hospitals, roads, and public buildings destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Local authorities are now working to coordinate emergency aid, including food, water, shelter, and medical supplies for the tens of thousands of people displaced by the quakes, while the government launches a long-term assessment of the total damage and plans for reconstruction.

Newly released aerial footage has laid bare the catastrophic scale of destruction that has swept across Venezuela’s coastal La Guaira region in the wake of two powerful back-to-back earthquakes. The geologic events, registering magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 respectively, have triggered one of the deadliest natural disasters the South American nation has faced in recent years.

As of the latest official updates from Venezuelan government authorities, the confirmed death toll from the seismic events has climbed to at least 1,430 people. The aerial perspective captured by drones and reconnaissance aircraft offers a sweeping, unflinching view of collapsed infrastructure, leveled residential neighborhoods and damaged public facilities that have left thousands of survivors displaced and in urgent need of aid.

La Guaira, a key coastal region that sits along Venezuela’s northern Caribbean coast, has long been recognized as an area at high risk for seismic activity, but the intensity of the two consecutive quakes has outpaced many local emergency preparedness expectations. Rescue and recovery teams are still working to clear rubble, reach isolated communities and account for hundreds of people who remain unaccounted for in the hardest-hit zones, even as emergency response efforts ramp up across the country.

International disaster relief organizations have already begun coordinating with local officials to deliver food, clean water, medical supplies and temporary shelter to affected populations, as the full scope of the tragedy continues to emerge in the days following the seismic shocks.

Two massive back-to-back earthquakes have unleashed unprecedented destruction across Venezuela, leaving hundreds of buildings flattened, more than 1,400 people confirmed dead, and tens of thousands unaccounted for as exhausted families and emergency workers race against time to pull survivors from rubble.

Among the countless grieving, waiting families is Andreina Valerio, who rushed straight from her workplace to La Guaira — the coastal hard-hit region where her 21-month-old son Santiago was staying with her partner Ramsés Mendoza and his extended family at an in-law’s apartment. By the time she arrived, the multi-story building had collapsed into a pile of concrete and twisted rebar, with her entire family trapped beneath the wreckage.

Speaking to reporters on the edge of the disaster site Saturday, Valerio said she has not abandoned hope that her son and his family will be found alive. Just days after the quake, she heard the faint cry of a baby coming from the rubble, while her brother-in-law Samuel Mendoza detected a woman’s faint plea for “help” a day earlier. “I still have faith my son is alive,” Valerio said. “I know my son will get through this, as will his family.”

Valerio and Mendoza are not alone in their desperate vigil: the collapsed building is also believed to hold two other trapped children — 9-year-old Lucas and 3-year-old Aranza. Across La Guaira, hundreds of other families have been digging through wreckage with their bare hands, deprived of sleep and left hoarse from calling out for trapped relatives, as infrastructure failures and limited resources slow large-scale rescue efforts.

Official data confirms the scale of the catastrophe: more than 1,400 buildings have been completely destroyed across La Guaira state alone, with over 3,200 people injured nationwide. Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, described the disaster as “the most disastrous event this republic has suffered in the last 123 years,” labeling the region’s damage as “tremendous devastation.” Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has deployed 14,000 police and military personnel to the state, which has been militarized to maintain public order and safety, with travel to the affected region officially discouraged.

On the ground, rescue operations have been hampered by crumbling, blocked roads that delayed the arrival of heavy excavation equipment for hours. Ambulances have been unable to navigate gridlocked streets, forcing injured survivors to be transported to care on the backs of motorbikes, particularly after a key bridge collapsed. Early Saturday, international rescue teams from El Salvador and Spain arrived at the La Guaira site where Valerio’s family is trapped, but access issues initially prevented them from entering the rubble. By end of day Saturday, no survivors had been pulled from that specific building, though teams from 10 total nations were expected to join the response effort across the country.

Community solidarity has filled gaps left by overwhelmed official services: neighbors and volunteers from across Venezuela have flocked to La Guaira, distributing donated medicine, clothing, and food to displaced families. Relatives of missing people have set up makeshift camps along the streets near collapsed buildings, refusing to leave out of fear that authorities will block access to the sites and cut off any chance of recovering their loved ones. At the main hospital in Caracas, which has received more than 600 injured survivors, most with serious bone fractures, medical staff are also addressing widespread psychological trauma, with many patients experiencing severe panic attacks. Family members have posted handcrafted posters of missing loved ones outside the hospital next to official lists of the dead and injured, desperate for any information.

The disaster has laid bare Venezuela’s long-standing vulnerability to large-scale emergencies, after years of repeated political and economic crises that have strained public infrastructure and response capacity. As of Saturday, power has been restored to 60% of La Guaira, but rescue workers and families face a race against the clock, with the odds of finding surviving trapped people dropping by the hour in the sweltering tropical heat.

A devastating earthquake that tore through parts of Venezuela has left hundreds of survivors grappling with both physical injuries and severe psychological trauma, with a major Caracas hospital now on the front lines of caring for those from the hardest-hit zones. A reporting team from the British Broadcasting Corporation recently gained access to this busy medical facility, where medical workers are working around the clock to address the overwhelming influx of patients.

Inside the hospital’s wards, the dual toll of the disaster is impossible to miss. Many survivors have been admitted with serious bone fractures, crushed limbs, and other traumatic injuries sustained when buildings and infrastructure collapsed during the seismic event. Alongside these physical wounds, medical teams are also seeing a sharp rise in acute panic attacks, as survivors struggle to process the destruction of their homes, the loss of loved ones, and the persistent fear of aftershocks.

The situation underscores the immense strain that natural disasters place on already stretched healthcare systems, even in capital cities far from the epicenter of a catastrophe. As medical staff continue to triage and treat patients, the full scope of the earthquake’s human impact is only beginning to emerge through on-the-ground reporting from inside the country’s medical response system.

Three days after back-to-back powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 rocked northern Venezuela, exhausted rescue teams and civilian volunteers are locked in a frantic race against time to pull survivors from the ruins of collapsed buildings across the hardest-hit coastal state of La Guaira. Even as the rising death toll brings crushing grief to hundreds of families, the rare, dramatic rescues that have emerged from the rubble have kept a flicker of hope alive for those still waiting for news of missing loved ones.

On Friday, the most striking moment of rescue came in Catia La Mar, when Daniel Cordero, with blood on his face, was pulled out from under a fallen building. Surrounded by emergency workers who guided him onto a stretcher, Cordero’s survival came as a much-needed boost to morale for search teams and grieving communities alike, following the devastating tremors that struck Wednesday. His rescue, alongside that of a 4-year-old child and an injured elderly man who was pulled alive to cheering crowds, reminded searchers that miracles remain possible even in the disaster’s third day.

But for far too many families, the news coming out of the rubble has been unrelentingly tragic. As of Saturday, Venezuelan government officials confirmed the death toll has climbed to at least 1,430, with thousands more injured and tens of thousands still unaccounted for. Authorities expect the number of fatalities to continue rising as search crews clear more debris.

In La Guaira, the region that bore the brunt of the earthquakes’ destruction, stories of loss have become a daily occurrence. Daritza Polo confirmed her mother’s death on Friday, saying simply, “I have no words,” as she processed her grief. For the Rojas family, the pain came when 3-year-old Leyder and 10-year-old Leymar Rojas were pulled from the rubble wrapped in a funeral sheet. Their mother collapsed in anguish, fainting as onlookers tried to steady her, while their uncle Ramón Eduardo fought back tears speaking to reporters. “It’s horrible, we have seen way too much,” he said. Their 4-year-old brother Adrián survived the collapse, but “not all of them, we could not get them,” Eduardo added.

Search operations continued through Saturday, led largely by local civilians who have worked nonstop under the scorching tropical sun, with a growing contingent of international rescue teams arriving to reinforce the effort. Emergency responders hold that the first 48 to 72 hours after a disaster are the most critical window for rescuing people alive, though survival windows can stretch longer if trapped people have access to clean water and food.

Across La Guaira, many families remain in limbo, clinging to the fragile hope that their missing relatives will be the next to be pulled alive from the rubble. For Noribel Mendoza, who lived in a collapsed La Guaira building with her two adult sons, 21-year-old Andrés David and 19-year-old Ángel Eduardo, the family has had no word since the earthquakes struck. Ángela Molina Castro, the boys’ aunt, told reporters by phone from her home in Anzoátegui State that, “We don’t know if they were there, they weren’t there, if they’re in the hospital or a clinic, still nothing.” One of the boys’ aunts has camped outside the collapsed building waiting for updates, Molina Castro said, but no professional rescue teams have reached the site yet. Neighbors have tried to move heavy debris by hand, but much of the wreckage is too large for civilian crews to move on their own. After a friend and his pregnant wife were confirmed dead earlier this week, the family holds out hope their nephews’ story will be different. “It’s a tragedy that I’m living for the first time in my life,” Molina Castro said.

Flor María González, who has waited for news since Wednesday, shares that same fragile hope. Her 33-year-old daughter Dilinyer and three grandchildren, ages 6, 8, and 10, were in their collapsed La Guaira apartment building when the earthquakes hit. González had just returned to her home in Maracaibo, in western Venezuela, after a visit to her daughters near Caracas when the tremors struck, and she has watched the search unfold from afar. Her other daughter is camped outside the rubble, waiting for any update. “We still have faith,” González said.