Héctor Méndez, known as "El Topo Mayor," founder of the Topos Azteca and a reference for Mexican rescue efforts, was involved in a tense verbal confrontation with a journalist from a Venezuelan state channel when he refused to record a message that included thanks to President Claudia Sheinbaum for sending the team to assist with rescue operations.
The incident was recounted by Méndez himself in an interview that went viral, generating thousands of supportive reactions for the 80-year-old volunteer.
It is worth clarifying that, despite several media outlets indicating in recent hours that the request made by the journalist to the rescuer was to thank Delcy Rodríguez, in the images, El Topo says that the communicator told him, "You have to say this and thank YOUR president," referring to Sheinbaum.
According to the rescuer, a woman who identified herself as a representative of a local television station approached him during the operations in the municipality of Chacao, Caracas, and indicated the exact content of what he should say in front of the cameras.
“A girl from a local television station arrived, I don’t want to say which media, and she said to me: ‘You have to say this and thank your president.’ And I replied: ‘Listen, dear, I’m going to tell you something, I’m 80 years old and you’re not going to come here and tell me what to say, okay? You’re not the boss of anyone. I’m not a politician; I’m a rescuer, I’m a volunteer. I’m a civil society member, and you’re not going to dictate what I say.’”, Méndez recounted.
Méndez acknowledged that the conversation ended abruptly: “Well, I was angry, I told her to go to hell”, although he clarified that he later apologized to the journalist’s supervisors for the tone of the exchange.
In another part of his testimony, the rescuer was even more direct: “What kind of idiot tells an old man what I have to do? What the hell is wrong with him?”
In any case, whether it was gratitude towards Sheinbaum or Delcy Rodríguez, the attempt at manipulation was blatant, and the rescuer's response was very appropriate.
The Aztec Moles in Venezuela: 28 lives rescued
Méndez and his team arrived in Venezuela on Friday, June 27, with an initial group of approximately 20 rescuers, trained dogs, and specialized equipment.
This is the third time they have come to the country: they were also there during the Cariaco earthquake in 1997 and the Vargas landslide in 1999.
Until the time of the incident, the Aztec Moles had rescued 28 people alive in the Chacao area, where efforts are focused in Los Palos Grandes, among the rubble of the Petunia building and other collapsed structures.
Méndez was clear about the only commitment he acknowledges in this mission: "We have a moral obligation, and we cannot leave until we finish. I didn't come here to just poke around here and there."
A catastrophe of historical proportions
The two earthquakes on June 24 - with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, separated by just 39 seconds - are the strongest recorded in Venezuela since 1900.
The official report as of June 29 indicates 1,520 dead, 3,150 injured, and 12,721 families affected, with 774 buildings collapsed across the country. The UN estimates more than 50,000 missing, while the citizen platform desaparecidosterremotovenezuela.com counts over 60,000 people unaccounted for since the earthquakes.
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