Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, a 43-year-old Venezuelan security guard, was rescued alive this Thursday in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, after being buried for eight days under the rubble of the shopping center Galerías Playa Grande, in an operation that lasted more than 72 hours and involved teams from seven countries.
According to reports from EFE and The Associated Press at the scene, Gil Flores was taken out on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to a hospital in Caracas.
The doctors were assessing his condition at the time of the announcement.
Even the U.S. State Department published a video of the moment.
"Another extraordinary rescue in Venezuela. After eight days under the rubble, rescuers from @LACoFD, @MiamiDadeFire, and teams from around the world saved a survivor, a powerful reminder of the courage, determination, and teamwork that saves lives," they wrote on X.
"Thank God for allowing this miracle."
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, narrated the real-time progress through his social media and announced the successful outcome:
"After more than 72 hours of work and facing an extremely unstable structure, aftershocks, collapses, and the need to create a new access route, we rescued Hernán Alberto Gil Flores alive."
Closed with a phrase that encapsulated the collective sentiment: “Thank God for allowing this miracle. Strength to Venezuela.”
The guardhouse that saved his life
Hernán was on the night shift at the security booth of the underground parking lot when the earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 shook northern Venezuela on June 24.
The small structure withstood the collapse of the nine-story building and created an air pocket that kept it alive under more than 140 tons of debris.
It was the Costa Rican rescuer Allan Madrigal, from the Costa Rican Red Cross, who heard her voice for the first time on Sunday, June 29, about 100 hours after the earthquake.
The exchange was brief: "Is there anyone alive?" Madrigal asked.
"Yes," Hernán replied.
"Are you pressed?"
"No, I'm free."
From that moment on, the teams focused their efforts on digging a tunnel to reach him, supplying water through a hose to prevent dehydration.
A rescue on the edge of the abyss
Formal work began at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 30.
The adjacent building shifted one millimeter per hour—a pace that increased ninefold during the operation—and the parking lot itself moved three centimeters during those days.
The aftershocks and the rains caused several landslides in the original tunnel, forcing the opening of a second entrance.
At a critical moment, the active rescuers were reduced to just eight individuals.
Luis Farias, president of the Venezuelan Red Cross, recalled it straightforwardly:
"Now you see 100 people, but there was a time when there were just eight of us. We were alone with the Costa Ricans. We thought we were crazy because no one was paying attention to us."
The calls to attract reinforcements were successful.
Costa Ricans were joined by Salvadorans, Chileans, Mexicans, Portuguese, Venezuelans, and Americans.
Up to 300 people entered in shifts to build support wooden structures and provide water and medicine.
María Paz Campos, a veteran Chilean firefighter, was the one who guided him through the chamber and calmed him during the final extraction.
Hernán had asked the rescuers not to tell his wife that he was alive.
Minyar Collado, from the Red Cross of Costa Rica, confirmed to AP: "When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive just in case he didn't make it."
His wife, Gusbimar González, has been standing in front of the collapsed building since Thursday, June 25.
"It was days of sadness, pain, and despair because I couldn't find him, but when I learned that he was alive, I saw a glimmer of light in the darkness," she told AP.
The symbol of an unprecedented disaster
The rescue of Hernán takes place during the largest seismic disaster in Venezuela in over a century.
The official report of the double earthquake records 2,295 dead, 11,267 injured, and 12,841 displaced, while the UN estimates up to 50,000 missing.
Farias summarized the philosophy that guided the operation until the end:
"At first, we asked ourselves several times what we were doing, and the answer was always to accompany this gentleman. We couldn't have given him hope after the fifth day and just leave him here."
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