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The Spanish search and rescue team Usar13 announced this Saturday that it was unable to travel to Venezuela to participate in relief efforts following the devastating earthquakes on June 24, and that it has decided to return home due to the expectation that the obstacles preventing their journey will persist over time.
Through their social media, the organization communicated: "For various reasons, Usar13 cannot fly, just like many other teams, and seeing that this situation will be prolonged, we have decided to return home."
The message, full of frustration, added: "We leave with great sadness for not having been able to help and contribute our little grain of sand to the Venezuelan people. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey."
Usar13 is an independent, private, and non-profit humanitarian organization based in La Nucía (Alicante), founded in 2013 and specialized in urban search and rescue with dogs. The organization has participated in previous international missions, including the earthquake in Turkey in 2023 and the DANA in Valencia in 2024.
The organization did not specify the exact nature of the obstacles—whether they are issues related to visas, entry permits, coordination with Venezuelan authorities, or other logistical hurdles—but it did emphasize that it was not the only team facing such challenges, indicating systemic difficulties affecting multiple volunteer rescue groups.
According to Esnoticiaglobal the rescuers had coordinated a flight for 5:00 PM this Saturday, with luggage already weighed in, but were unable to depart due to bureaucratic obstacles between the Embassy of Venezuela in Spain and the airline.
This case could highlight the historical pattern of the Nicolás Maduro regime exerting strict control over the entry of foreign non-governmental organizations into the country, a practice that has previously generated friction with the international community and now, amid a historically significant catastrophe, once again excludes independent civilian teams willing to help.
The earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 were two tremors measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, occurring with just 39 seconds apart, with epicenters in San Felipe and Yumare in the Yaracuy state. La Guaira state, the coastal area closest to Caracas, has been declared a disaster zone.
The death toll had risen to 1,430 dead and more than 3,238 injured as of June 27, with 346 collapsed buildings. The UN estimated that up to 50,000 people could be missing and more than six million affected.
While civilian teams like Usar13 remained blocked, the world mobilized towards Venezuela with 17 countries sending 25 teams and nearly 1,600 international rescuers. Spain officially deployed 63 personnel from the Military Emergency Unit (UME), nine rescue dogs, and medical staff aboard an Air Force plane; the UME was already operating in La Guaira and had rescued two people alive in the Vistamar residential area.
The difference in treatment between state teams and independent civil organizations is telling: while the government machinery operates with relative ease, NGOs like Usar13 encounter a bureaucracy that leaves them stranded.
In that same scenario, Cuban doctors in Venezuela —about 12,930 collaborators according to July 2025 data— immediately mobilized in La Guaira following the earthquakes, as part of the cooperation agreements between the governments of Havana and Caracas. The acting president Delcy Rodríguez publicly thanked the Cuban support, in a contrast that illustrates how the Venezuelan government facilitates the presence of ideological allies while obstructing the arrival of independent civil organizations.
At least nine Spaniards died in the earthquakes, and 131 citizens from that country remained missing, turning this tragedy into a top consular emergency for Madrid, in addition to being a humanitarian catastrophe that continues to demand every available rescuer.
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