Belkys Josefina Barreto García, a 60-year-old Venezuelan, spent almost four days trapped between two thick concrete walls, in complete darkness, banging stones against a piece of metal in hopes 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 confinement.
His account, given to journalist Alejandra Oraa, is one of the most harrowing survival stories that this tragedy has left behind.
"Well, first of all, I'm grateful. I am doing well, a little bruised, with an injury on my leg, but I am okay, thank God. I have been 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 relied on 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 and I was knocking with the stones, I had something metal with the stones, and then I was knocking too, to see if they could hear me," he recounted.
The darkness was so thick that he couldn't even see his own hands.
"Everything was black, black. In fact, I became a bit anxious because I thought... it’s impossible that I can't even see my hands in this darkness, but I remained calm the whole time, didn't lose my faith, held on to God, who 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 someone is there, and yes, I immediately shouted that yes, I am here, that I am alive, I was shouting to them, and they asked for my name, which I never forgot in 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 itself, 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 felt fear when the rescuers had me and were about to pull me out. I was afraid because the opening was very small. I thought, well, if you've made it this far, you have to get out. Can you imagine with all these wonderful people who came to rescue me, and I was going to be afraid? I was truly very scared," he admitted.
What followed was an extraction that she herself compared to a birth.
"And I came out backwards, 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 looked, I saw the light. I mean, literally, I saw the light," she described.
It was at that moment when the strength maintained for 86 hours shattered for the first time.
"As I told you, I hadn't cried or anything, but there I really broke down in tears. I was born again," he declared.
"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 found out she was alive because Bukele published the audio of her screams, and that they had not received help from national or international organizations beforehand.
Moreover, it was his children, from the United States, who reported on social media that the specialized assistance 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 to Venezuela consisting of 300 rescuers and paramedics, 150 tons of supplies, and six airplanes, making it 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 historic proportions
Two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, just 39 seconds apart, shook northern Venezuela on June 24, marking the most powerful quakes recorded in the country in over 125 years, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The official toll stood at 1,719 dead and 5,034 injured as of June 29.
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