Security guard rescued alive after eight days, providing a rare moment of hope in the midst of widespread destruction.
Hundreds of rescuers in Venezuela celebrated on Thursday after pulling a 43-year-old security guard alive from the rubble of a collapsed building, eight days after twin earthquakes devastated the country.
With the official death toll approaching 2,300 and many people still unaccounted for, the rescue of Hernan Gil was hailed as a miracle. Gil was carefully extracted on a stretcher from the ruins of the seven-story building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a coastal area that was almost completely destroyed by the June 24 earthquakes.
“This is truly a miracle,” Gil’s wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, told AFP as rescue teams worked to free him.
The twin earthquakes, among the deadliest disasters to strike Latin America in recent years, flattened numerous residential apartment buildings, trapping countless people beneath the rubble and prompting an international rescue effort.
Rescue teams from Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico worked nonstop for three days to reach Gil.
To keep him alive, they supplied more than 10 litres of water through a hose and provided oxygen using a tube.
In the final stage of the rescue, around 30 responders cleared debris from the building’s parking area while two rescuers dug a three-metre tunnel to reach him.
“It wasn’t easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located,” Cristian Vera, who led the Chilean rescue team, told AFP.
Although rescuers have carried out a handful of remarkable rescues—including a three-year-old boy found alive six days after the earthquakes on Tuesday—hopes of finding many more survivors have steadily diminished.
Attention is now turning to the survival and recovery of those who made it through the earthquakes.
Thousands remain homeless, while food and clean water are in short supply. Hospitals are operating beyond capacity, and experts have warned that overcrowding and poor sanitation could lead to disease outbreaks.
Many Venezuelans have expressed frustration over what they consider the government’s slow and inadequate response, saying aid has taken too long to reach affected communities.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez is scheduled to address the nation at a press conference later on Thursday.
‘It would take a miracle’
The twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, devastated entire neighbourhoods across oil-rich Venezuela, a country whose infrastructure and healthcare system had already been weakened by years of economic crisis.
According to NASA estimates, nearly 60,000 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Wednesday that the death toll had climbed to 2,295, while more than 11,000 people were injured.
He added that nearly 13,000 residents had been displaced, with many now sheltering in tents set up on streets, in parks, and on vacant land.
Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for.
In the worst-hit city of La Guaira, north of Caracas, most collapsed buildings have been marked with the letter “D” for “deceased,” indicating they were searched but no survivors were found.
Relatives, volunteers, and rescue crews have increasingly shifted their efforts from searching for survivors to recovering those who lost their lives.
In the Los Corales neighbourhood, Hernan Sandoval was digging through the rubble in search of his eight-year-old son, Ronald, along with his nephew Leo, 8, and niece Victoria Madera, 10, who were trapped when their apartment complex in La Gambarra collapsed.
Ronald had been visiting his cousins when the earthquakes struck.
“I ran out like a desperate madman” to save them, Sandoval said. “My heart broke. I cried for a while, then kept going. I’ve looked for him everywhere—every day, in hospitals across Caracas and even on social media.”
He said he had heard what sounded like a response after striking a wall with a rock at Gambarra.
“I still have a lot of faith. We’re getting closer to our son every day, and I promised myself I’d bring him back alive,” he said.
Experts note that the chances of finding survivors beneath deep rubble decline sharply after the critical 72-hour window.
Cesar Gonzalez, a 54-year-old Mexican firefighter and search-and-rescue dog handler, said he gave water to his two dogs, Zeus and Bom. “One is for detecting the living, the other for cadavers. Just two days ago, there was much more hope. Now, it would take a miracle,” he said.
‘We lost everything’
The World Food Programme on Tuesday appealed for $50 million to provide food assistance to around 500,000 people in Venezuela over three months.
Police and military forces have been patrolling affected areas to prevent looting, which has been widely reported.
Meanwhile, queues for aid continue to grow, with many survivors relying on volunteers and donations from fellow citizens.
On a soccer field, 33-year-old Maria Arteaga, a mother of four, prepared to spend Wednesday night in an improvised shelter made of tarpaulins and a Venezuelan flag.
“We lost everything except our lives. We’re even barefoot,” she told AFP.
