Search and rescue teams, assisted by specially trained dogs, continued yesterday to search for the last survivors in the rubble of two very powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last Wednesday, where the official death toll has risen to 1,450 and 189 buildings have been confirmed to have collapsed completely.
Tens of thousands of people remain missing, while at least 774 buildings suffered severe damage last week in the Latin American country, which has for years faced economic crisis and intense political conflict, even before former president Nicolás Maduro was captured in early January during a bloody US military operation in the capital, Caracas.
“The number of deaths has reached 1,450, women and men who lost their lives in the worst and most brutal natural disaster our country has ever suffered in its entire history,” parliament speaker Jorge Rodríguez said yesterday.
The number of buildings damaged or destroyed stands at 774, “including 189 that collapsed completely,” he added.
The United Nations estimates that around 50,000 people are missing.
Survivors still being pulled from under the rubble
A man and his teenage son were rescued from the rubble yesterday, almost four days after the double earthquake struck Venezuela, in Caraballeda, a coastal city north of Caracas that suffered massive destruction.
US and French rescue teams pulled the young man and his father from a mountain of debris, shocked, exhausted and naked, on a stretcher.
In that city, residents, angered by the inaction of soldiers, forced some of them to pick up tools and help clear rubble from a collapsed building.
“My frustration comes from the fact that a general arrived with about twenty armed soldiers and they just sat in a corner. They could have pulled someone out, even if dead, but they were just sitting calmly,” said Alexander Mihares, a 26-year-old shopkeeper and volunteer rescuer.
After being confronted, soldiers began to help remove debris.
“Search and rescue operations are ongoing. We have found people alive and therefore operations have not been suspended. We still have hope,” interim president Delcy Rodríguez said last night, extending school closures for one week.
In one of the hardest-hit areas near the epicentre, La Guaira, Héctor Aguilera was still searching for four members of his family, buried under the rubble when the successive earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck last Wednesday.
Two of his relatives were rescued. “We did not have the means to get our family out. We could not reach them on our own. They are buried there. We know they are dead. But we remain here,” he said.
In the San Bernardino district of the capital, volunteers climbed onto a collapsed building, using drills to break through concrete and removing debris by hand, forming human chains.
In Chacao, another district of Caracas, large advertising screens displayed the faces of missing persons, in the hope of helping locate them.
Papal “solidarity”
“I wish to express my solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Venezuela affected by the recent earthquakes, which have caused many deaths and injuries,” Pope Leo XIV said yesterday in Spanish at the Vatican.
In the hours before the arrival of the first foreign rescue teams, citizens searched for victims, often with their bare hands.
In a country whose economy has struggled for years, the lack of heavy machinery is being painfully felt.
“Mainly residents” are taking part in rescue operations and “working with very basic tools,” said Craig Demelon, a 43-year-old experienced Australian rescuer based in Miami, in Caraballeda.
The government has restricted access to La Guaira state and required volunteers to obtain permits to enter, a move that has angered many.
“You need permission to go save lives… think about that,” said Carlos Itriago, 27, in frustration.
Machado says she will return
Meanwhile, opposition figure María Corina Machado told Fox News that she will return to Venezuela “very soon”.
“It is the moment, it is my duty to stand by my people,” she said.
The Venezuelan government considers Machado a fugitive and accuses her of supporting the US military operation that overthrew Maduro.
Interim president Delcy Rodríguez, who has faced strong criticism, thanked 24 countries that have sent 521 tonnes of aid, more than 2,700 rescuers and 86 dog teams trained to locate trapped victims.
The damage is estimated at nearly $7 billion, equivalent to 6% of GDP, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
At least 28 foreign nationals, or people with dual nationality, are among the victims, including seven from China, nine from Spain, two from Brazil, one from Chile, one from Uruguay and one with Venezuelan-Italian citizenship.
Venezuela is a country with high seismic activity, but such a powerful earthquake had not been recorded there since 1997.
Source: CNA
