A baby was rescued alive from the rubble by neighbors in the area of the collapse, in one of the few images of hope left by the two devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday night.
The little boy was unharmed, and the video of his rescue went viral, moving thousands of people around the world.
The Venezuelan authorities updated the assessment of the disaster on Thursday: 188 dead and 1,520 injured, with approximately 200 people still trapped under the rubble. These figures exceed the previous count of 164 fatalities and 971 injuries, reflecting the magnitude of what is already considered the worst earthquake in Venezuela in over a century.
The two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 occurred on Wednesday at 6:04 PM local time, with only 39 seconds between them, and had epicenters in the Yaracuy region and the municipality of Yumare. Their shallow hypocenters —13 and 10 kilometers deep— intensified the destructive power on infrastructure already weakened by years of economic crisis.
The rescue of the baby was not the only miracle recorded. Three brothers were pulled alive from the Charaima Mansion complex in Caraballeda, where five of the eleven floors of the building collapsed. "We are three. Are you brothers? Yes, we are three," one of them said upon being rescued.
The hardest-hit area was La Guaira, the coastal city where the country's main airport is located, rendered inoperable due to structural damage.
The AFP agency reported looting in the area, where neighbors reported people trapped under collapsed buildings. In Catia La Mar, a girl whose voice could be heard among the rubble died before she could be rescued; only her dog survived.
In Caracas, the neighborhood of Altamira was one of the hardest hit. A 22-story building collapsed. Jean Alexander Capote, 48, lost everything: "My house fell down completely, I lost family, my mother-in-law passed away, my daughter is missing, I can't find her. What happened is devastating, we need help soon."
Yilsmaris Blanco, a resident of Catia La Mar, described the devastation with words that captured the collective pain: "It was terrible. Everything, everything collapsed. We're alive, but there are people who are currently suffering with their relatives trapped, with their relatives buried who they cannot retrieve."
The acting president Delcy Rodríguez declared a constitutional state of emergency and designated La Guaira as a "disaster zone." She also ordered the suspension of the Caracas Metro, the Valleys of Tuy Railway, and school classes.
The international response was immediate. Donald Trump promised aid to his "new and great friends" in Venezuela, and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the immediate deployment of search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance.
Chile, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China, India, and the European Union also offered collaboration. Pope Leo XIV allocated an emergency aid of over 100,000 dollars.
The United States Geological Survey estimated with a 42% probability between 10,000 and 100,000 possible fatalities through its automatic alert system, a projection that does not equate to a real count of victims, but reflects the potential severity of the disaster.
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