Venezuela search teams scramble as hope fades of finding quake survivors
- Last updated: June 29, 2026 | 14:44
Hopes were fading on Monday of finding survivors more than four days after powerful twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, as residents grow increasingly frustrated with the government's response to the disaster that has killed at least 1,450 people and left tens of thousands unaccounted for.
French and American rescue teams found a man and his teen son alive under the rubble on Sunday in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Caracas, AFP journalists saw.
The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but that hope dwindled as the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims passed.
Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquake disasters.
Some 774 buildings were badly damaged in back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on Wednesday evening, including 189 buildings that have totally collapsed, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Sunday.
AFPTV drone footage from La Guaira, one of the worst-hit areas, showed smoke rising from piles of concrete and debris, where a neighborhood of multistorey buildings once stood.
In the coastal town of Tucacas, rescuers were digging for people trapped in the pancaked layers and rubble of a collapsed building complex.
Luis Salas, 27, who joined the rescue efforts, told AFP that "the hardest part was when we felt hope in the tunnels we went into -- crawling, clearing debris, working with all our heart, with great faith -- and when we reached our targets, we found them lifeless."
Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters define the narrow window for rescuing the living. After that, the search usually becomes one of recovering bodies.
In the capital's San Bernardino neighborhood, volunteers clambered over a collapsed building, using drills to break up concrete and forming lines to remove rubble by hand.
In Chacao, another area of Caracas, large electronic screens on a building usually used for advertising were showing the faces of missing people.
On Sunday, Rodriguez said the death toll -- which was still expected to rise -- had reached 1,450 people, with at least 3,150 others injured.
'Can't do it alone'
In the coastal city of La Guaira, Hector Aguilera came to search for four family members buried in the rubble.
"We don't have the support to get our family out -- we can't do it alone. They are buried there: we know they are dead, but here we are," he said.
Even as rescue efforts continued, public anger has mounted in some areas.
Eduardo Cardozo, a volunteer in Tucacas, said it was "frustrating" to know that some victims could have been saved "if they'd been searched for in time."
In La Guaira state's Tanaguarena area, one man urged soldiers to pick up picks and shovels: "The country needs you. Put down your weapon."
Outbreaks of looting have hit La Guaira city, much of which now lies in rubble.
Pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses were ransacked, said residents, some of whom complained of the slow and meager post-quake aid coming from authorities.
Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Sunday that temporary camps were being set up for people who had lost their homes.
"At the same time, work begins on planning projects that will allow new homes to be built in a very short time," she said.
Agence France-Presse