LA GUAIRA — Venezuela earthquake rescue crews launched a major search operation after a baby and two 11-year-old boys were found alive under the rubble over the weekend, even as tens of thousands of people were still missing. The rescues took place in the Caribbean coastal nation days after two major quakes struck on Wednesday local time.
The discovery of the three children offered a brief breath of hope in a situation otherwise dominated by death tolls and loss. At least 1,450 people had been reported dead by Saturday local time, while rescue teams from several countries continued combing through collapsed buildings in La Guaira state, the worst-hit area.
It was hard. Very hard.
On the ground, victims’ families and volunteers had already been working by hand before hundreds and then thousands of foreign responders arrived. They dug through debris, called out relatives’ names, and waited for signs of life beneath dust and blistering heat. Only then did more than 2,000 foreign search-and-rescue personnel join the effort.
International rescuers race the 72-hour window
The search operation is now running against the clock. Sebastian Eugster, head of the Swiss rescue team, said there is usually a roughly three-day, or 72-hour, window that matters most for finding survivors. After that, the chances of pulling someone alive from the wreckage drop sharply. “There is a window of about three days, 72 hours, after which the chance of rescuing someone alive declines,” Eugster told Reuters on Saturday.
The 80-member Swiss team said its eight search dogs had helped them detect signs of life several times. Not every victim could be reached in time, though. Some were found, but not alive. The scene underscored how narrow the margin for hope has become amid concrete, twisted steel, and thick dust.
The United States also announced emergency aid. The U.S. State Department praised the rescue of a baby by its search-and-rescue team and posted a video on X showing helmeted responders lifting the child from the rubble, still wrapped in a blanket and crying. The European Union and the United States also said they would send aid packages worth millions of dollars to support disaster response.
11-year-olds, a father and son, and shifting numbers
One of the most closely watched rescues came from the Colombian team. Reuters TV reported that they found a boy named Moises buried about three meters under the debris. He was evacuated on a stretcher, with a broken arm and his eyes covered with cloth to protect them from the glare after hours in darkness. His mother and sister were reported dead in the quake.
In the city of Caraballeda, Mexican rescuers also pulled an 11-year-old boy from a collapsed building. Around the same time, responders from the U.S. and France removed a man and his son from the remains of a destroyed structure, then carefully carried them toward an ambulance on a black tarp.
The figures on the ground remain fluid. Venezuela’s government said hundreds of people were either missing or trapped. But a site promoted by the country’s political opposition on Sunday put the number of people still unaccounted for close to 50,000. The gap points to how chaotic victim counting can become when emergency systems are overwhelmed.
La Guaira has become the epicenter of destruction
In La Guaira, the air is still thick with dust, a sharp odor, and piles of buildings flattened to the ground. Some volunteers and residents were even wearing motorcycle helmets because full protective gear was still not widely available. Workers were seen identifying bodies in an area used as a makeshift hospital parking lot, while several vehicles carried body bags away from a dirt field.
Residents also complained that the government response was slow and lacked heavy equipment in the first phase. There were reports that volunteers blocked an excavator from leaving the collapse site because they believed the machine was still needed in the search. The interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez initially thanked civilian volunteers, then tightened road access, saying traffic was blocking emergency vehicles.
Rodríguez said more than 3,000 people had been injured and that the number sheltering in temporary accommodations had reached a similar level. Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the death toll could exceed 10,000 from the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes. That would place the disaster among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the past century.
In the middle of the panic, every survival story carries weight. It carries a lot. For families still waiting at the edge of the rubble, the rescue of three children is a reminder that the search is not over, even as the 72-hour window is nearly gone and the toll keeps rising.
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