The father of Dayán Martínez, a 10-year-old Cuban boy from Melena del Sur, Mayabeque, issued a desperate public plea from Venezuela for the authorities to immediately resume search efforts in the collapsed building where the child has been missing under the rubble since the earthquakes on June 24.
The journalist Jany González published the father's testimony in a video on her Facebook wall, which has accumulated over 13,000 views.
"The father of Dayán Martínez, the 10-year-old Cuban boy who disappeared after the earthquakes in Venezuela, is urgently calling on the authorities to resume search efforts at the Coral Beach building in Los Corales, La Guaira state. The family begs for the search efforts to restart as soon as possible. Every minute counts," he wrote.
According to the father’s account to the journalist, on Sunday night a team of American rescuers entered the building with thermal cameras and detected possible signs of life in the area where the child is believed to be located.
Some team members claimed to have heard footsteps and voices inside the collapsed structure.
However, at the moment the team was preparing to begin the extraction, a 4.6 magnitude aftershock shook the area and triggered the group's safety protocols.
The little boy's aunt, Maryerit Arcia, explained: “When they are about to enter to carry out the mission to rescue the children, a 4.6 magnitude earthquake occurs at that moment. They say that due to the protocols they have for their work, for their safety, they cannot enter the area again until three hours have passed, provided there is no further seismic activity.”
After the withdrawal of the U.S. team, a Venezuelan group took over the operation but left the site around 2:00 AM after determining that there were no longer any signs of life, promising to return in the morning.
At the time the video was published, no rescue teams had returned to the site. When the journalist asked the father if there were rescuers working in the building, his response was emphatic: "There's nobody there."
Visibly distressed, the aunt pleaded with the journalist: "I ask you, please, to publish this video; the family is desperate, both those here and those there, who are witnessing that lives are at stake, that many days have passed, and they can't do anything."
The case of Dayán is part of a devastating family tragedy. His cousin Vanessa Martínez and a cousin of both, identified as Ivanna Barreto, were found dead on June 27, three days after the earthquakes. Both lived in the Coral Beach building. Vanessa's father is a Cuban doctor who completed a mission in Venezuela and decided to stay in the country; the teenager's mother resides in Cuba.
The drama of this family is part of a larger picture. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) of Cuba acknowledged the death of another Cuban in Venezuela as a result of the devastating earthquakes. The victim was named Lupercio Adrian D'Pérez y Pando, who, according to his Facebook profile, had been residing in the city of Caraballeda, in the state of Vargas (now La Guaira) since 2021.
At least 32 Cubans were reported as missing in Venezuela, concentrated in Caraballeda, Catia La Mar, and Los Corales, according to citizen platforms such as Encuéntralos and the monitoring by the independent digital media El Toque.
The earthquakes on June 24, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 and just 39 seconds apart, are regarded as the most powerful recorded in Venezuela since 1900.
The official death toll has risen to 1,719 deceased and over 5,034 injured, while the UN estimates that there are up to 50,000 missing across the country. Funvisis has recorded more than 400 aftershocks following the devastating earthquakes.
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