A video recorded from within the rubble by one of the rescuers became one of the most emotional testimonies of the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela this Friday.
In the images, shared on X by the user Cristian Crespo F., a group of men without helmets or professional gear can be seen working to rescue a woman named María Elena trapped under the rubble.
The phrase that sums up the moment is spoken by one of the rescuers directly to the victim to encourage her: "We're all going to get out of here. Three came in, and we're going to leave with four. Did you hear me, María Elena? Alright, sweetheart, we're going to have coffee."
In the audio, you can hear how the men coordinate the extraction of a beam approximately one meter long that is trapping the woman, check if she can move her feet, and reassure her about the risk of the ceiling collapsing.
One of the rescuers acknowledges out loud the danger he faces, but he does not back down: “If the ceiling comes down, I will be trapped with you, and I don't want to be trapped here with you because my son is waiting for me at home,” he says, before reaffirming that all four will come out together.
Crespo F. described these men as "true heroes of Venezuela" who act "without helmets, without tools, with their bare hands, offering words of encouragement," and concluded his post with a phrase that captures the gravity of the situation: "This is really tough."
The rescue takes place two days after two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck northern Venezuela with only 39 seconds apart, on Wednesday, June 24 at 6:04 PM local time, with the epicenter in the Yaracuy state. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) classified it as the worst seismic disaster recorded in the country since 1900.
The coastal area of La Guaira —Macuto, Catia la Mar, and Caraballeda— has suffered the greatest damage, with dozens of collapsed buildings and entire neighborhoods destroyed.
This Friday, the acting president Delcy Rodríguez raised the official tally to 589 deceased and 2,980 injured, a figure that triples the 164 deaths reported just 24 hours earlier.
The USGS estimated a 42% probability that the final number of victims could range between 10,000 and 100,000, while the UN calculated that up to 6.76 million people may have been affected.
The preexisting humanitarian crisis in Venezuela exacerbates the response: the shortage of professional rescue equipment and deteriorated infrastructure forces improvised citizens to lead many of the operations among the rubble, putting their own lives at risk.
Among the documented rescues, three siblings were pulled alive from the Mansión Charaima building in Caraballeda, and a baby was rescued unharmed by neighbors from the rubble.
The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, set a critical window of 48 to 72 hours to locate survivors, while Southern Command mobilized military forces to support rescue efforts, a historically significant gesture given the antagonism between Washington and Nicolás Maduro's government.
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