Two Cuban cousins, Vanessa Martínez and Dayan Martínez, from the municipality of Melena del Sur in the province of Mayabeque, remain missing in Venezuela following the earthquakes on June 24 that devastated the state of La Guaira.
Through his Facebook profile, journalist Daniel Benítez explained that both children "were last seen in this building, and now the family urgently requests that anyone with information about them get in touch."
The minors lived in the Coral Beach building, located in the Los Corales area of La Guaira, one of the areas most affected by the collapse of structures.
Vanessa's father is a Cuban doctor who completed a mission in Venezuela and decided to stay in the country, bringing his daughter with him. The girl's mother lives in Cuba, he pointed out.
The family requests that anyone with information about the minors contact the numbers shared on social media.
The case of the two children is situated within a tragedy of historical proportions. The two earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, occurred just 39 seconds apart, with their epicenter in the state of Yaracuy, and were classified by the United States Geological Survey as the most powerful recorded in Venezuela since 1900.
In La Guaira, more than 100 buildings collapsed, including Coral Beach itself, where rescuers managed to pull a woman and her father alive from the rubble.
Vanessa and Dayan are not the only Cubans with an unknown whereabouts. According to monitoring by the citizen platform Encuéntralos and social media tracking, at least 29 Cubans are reported as missing in Venezuela, most concentrated in La Guaira, particularly in the areas of Caraballeda, Catia La Mar, and Los Corales.
Among them is a family of at least six members missing in the Oasis and Resjurel buildings, as well as a psychologist, a boxing coach, a physiotherapist, and a cycling instructor, all Cuban residents in the coastal area.
The official toll of the disaster stands at 920 dead and more than 3,360 injured, according to Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly.
The actual magnitude of the tragedy could be much greater: the UN is handling unofficial figures of up to 50,000 missing across the country, while the International Organization for Migration estimates that 6.76 million people have been affected.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, described the situation as "truly terrifying devastation."
The Ministry of Public Health of Cuba confirmed that all the collaborators of the Cuban medical mission in Venezuela are safe and have joined the assistance efforts, although many Cubans who chose to remain in the country due to personal ties, such as the father of the two brothers, are still unaccounted for.
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