Venezuela quake families search rubble for missing relatives
Weeks after twin earthquakes hit La Guaira, families are still digging for relatives as recovery teams clear collapsed buildings.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
Families in Venezuela’s northern state of La Guaira are still searching through collapsed buildings nearly three weeks after twin earthquakes struck on June 24, Al Jazeera reported. The effort has shifted from finding survivors to locating the dead, leaving many residents waiting for proof of what happened to missing relatives.
Al Jazeera reported that the earthquakes registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 and that the official death toll has climbed above 5,000. Thousands of families are still seeking information about people who disappeared beneath the rubble, according to the broadcaster.
One of them is Ivan Chino, a La Guaira resident who has returned daily to the ruins of his neighborhood. Al Jazeera reported that seven members of his family remain missing after their apartment building collapsed, including his parents, his grandson and two nieces. His wife and children survived.
Chino told Al Jazeera he has searched with relatives and volunteers using shovels, pickaxes and other basic tools. “Nothing will stop us,” he said. “We will keep searching with our hands, our fingernails, shovels, hammers – whatever we have. We owe it to our families. This is our pain.”
Recovery work continues
Across La Guaira, excavators are still removing debris from residential blocks reduced to concrete piles, Al Jazeera reported. Families gather at the sites because each section of rubble moved could reveal information about someone missing.
Chino told Al Jazeera that the main obstacle is not a lack of will among families, but the shortage of heavy equipment needed to move large concrete slabs safely. Al Jazeera reported that many families believe more specialized machinery would speed the recovery work, while authorities continue coordinating debris removal in the worst-hit areas.
Dani Herrera, a search coordinator in La Guaira, told Al Jazeera that teams had rescued about 280 people alive and recovered nearly 477 bodies. Herrera said crews were still finding victims and clearing debris.
The work has changed since the first days after the quakes, Al Jazeera reported. Rescue crews initially focused on people who might still be alive under collapsed structures; weeks later, the task centers on recovering bodies, clearing damaged areas and helping families confirm the fate of missing relatives.
Families seek records and remains
The search is also taking place away from the rubble. Al Jazeera reported that authorities have set up temporary field offices where families submit reports, photographs and identifying details for missing relatives.
Officials are reviewing those records, checking them against available information and working to identify bodies recovered from collapsed buildings, according to Al Jazeera. For relatives, the paperwork is another part of the same search, especially when there is no body to bury and no grave to visit.
Al Jazeera reported that many families in La Guaira describe the uncertainty as one of the heaviest burdens left by the disaster. Without confirmation, they cannot hold funerals or begin mourning in the way they want.
Chino continues to return to the same ruins, Al Jazeera reported. For him and other families, the search is now about certainty and dignity: finding relatives, burying them and ensuring they are not left only as names on missing-persons lists.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.