Belkys Josefina Barreto García, a 60-year-old Venezuelan, spent nearly four days trapped between two thick concrete walls, in complete darkness, striking stones against a piece of metal so that someone would hear her.
On Sunday, June 28, the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team from El Salvador rescued her alive from the rubble of the Breogán building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, after 86 hours of being trapped.
Her account, given to journalist Alejandra Oraa, is one of the most harrowing survival stories to emerge from this tragedy.
"Well, first of all, I'm thankful. I'm doing fine, a bit beaten up, with a wound on my leg, but I'm okay, thank God. I'm being very well taken care of," were her first words.
Belkys recounts that from the very first moment, she refused to give up. Trapped in a tiny space, she turned to her voice, her hands, and her faith.
"I called them because I said, I mean, they have to get me out of here. I asked the Holy Spirit for help and I tapped on the stones; I had something metallic, and then I tapped again to see if they could hear me," he/she recounted.
The darkness was so dense that he couldn't even see his own hands.
"Everything was black, black. In fact, I became nervous because I thought... it can't be possible that I can't even see my hands in this darkness, but all the while I kept my calm, I didn't lose faith, I held on to God, He gave me this new opportunity to continue for Him, to continue with Him, to keep praying," she confessed.
When the Salvadoran rescuers managed to get close and asked if anyone was there, Belkys responded with all her strength.
“I heard that if there’s someone there, and yes, I immediately shouted that yes, I’m here, that I’m alive, I was shouting at them, and they asked for my name, which I never forgot during those 10 hours they were with me,” she recalled.
The most terrifying moment: The exit
Paradoxically, the moment of greatest terror was not the confinement, but the final stretch. Approximately ten rescuers worked for 11 uninterrupted hours to open an extraction duct, but the hole turned out to be extremely narrow.
"I was afraid when the rescuers had me and were about to pull me out. At that moment, I feared because the opening was quite small. I thought, well, if you've made it this far, you have to get out. Imagine with all these wonderful people who came to rescue me, and I was going to be scared; I was really very frightened," he admitted.
What followed was an extraction that she herself compared to a birth.
"And I backed out, dragging myself, that's how I emerged, I came out with quite a bit of difficulty, just like babies are born. I mean, shoulder, move one shoulder, move the hip, move the other shoulder, and literally, when I saw, I saw the light. I mean, literally, I saw the light," he described.
It was at that moment when the strength maintained for 86 hours finally broke for the first time.
"As I told you, I hadn't cried or anything, but there I really broke down in tears. I was reborn," she stated.
"It's my new flag."
After being stabilized at the field camp, Belkys was transferred by private helicopter—funded by the Salvadoran team—to a clinic in Caracas.
The doctors confirmed that he did not have any serious traumatic injuries: only lacerations and a wound on his leg.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, was the first to confirm the rescue on social media.
According to a report by Latin Times, a relative of Belkys revealed that the family only learned she was alive because Bukele published an audio of her screams, and that they had not received help from national or international organizations beforehand.
It was also his children, from the United States, who reported on social media that specialized aid had not arrived at the building, contributing to the case going viral and prompting the Salvadoran team to move to the area.
El Salvador deployed a mission of 300 rescuers and paramedics, 150 tons of supplies, and six aircraft to Venezuela, being one of the first countries to respond.
Belkys did not hide her gratitude: proudly holding the Salvadoran flag, she declared, "It's my new flag."
A tragedy of historical proportions
Two earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, just 39 seconds apart, shook northern Venezuela on June 24, marking the most powerful tremors recorded in the country in over 125 years, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The official toll reached 1,719 dead and 5,034 injured as of June 29.
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