Mary Lourdes Pérez lost her two children and her mother in the earthquakes that devastated Venezuela on June 24, 2026. Her heart-wrenching testimony, spread in a viral video on Instagram by journalist Román Camacho, denounces the complete abandonment by the State in the days following the catastrophe in Caraballeda, La Guaira state.
His youngest son, 16 years old, was rehearsing a dance with 20 other young people for the graduation party at La Merced School when the earthquake occurred. The rehearsal was taking place in the pool area or party hall of the school.
In the first few minutes, five girls were brought out with minor scratches; after 36 hours, a sixth was rescued. The body of another girl was found among the rubble, and one more was trapped for ten hours without being able to be freed.
Her eldest son, 21 years old, was 150 meters from the school building and was also buried. Mary Lourdes' mother met the same fate in the same area.
"The problem we've had since day one is that we haven't had the help of anyone at all," the woman said in front of the camera, her voice trembling.
The first rescuers did not arrive until the fifth day. “I don’t know how many days have passed, but I think it’s the sixth day. That is, they arrived on the fifth day,” said Mary Lourdes, who stated that she had not left the area since the moment of the earthquake.
The testimony includes an accusation that shocked those who heard it: some firefighters from the University of Carabobo demanded food and drinks in exchange for being the first to enter the building where her son and his classmates were.
"They told me that if I provided them with drinks and food, then they would be the first responders to enter the building," he recounted.
Mary Lourdes gave them everything she had: sandwiches, chocolates, and other food that her family from Caracas had brought for her.
"I preferred to give everything because my priority right now is indeed to find my son," he explained. The firefighters left without keeping their promise.
"They left, and they simply left, just like that. I mean, they promised me a lot of things and openly mocked me," he added.
Through tears, the mother described her children. The youngest, she said, "was going to be the Michael Jackson of his dancing," and he had already secured a spot to study Mechatronics Engineering at the Catholic University.
The eldest, whom his friends called 'bambam', was about to graduate from Simón Bolívar University with a degree in Transportation Administration.
"I lost my reason for living and I still have Mom. Mom is also sealed off, and it's true that no one has come to visit her," he concluded.
The case of Mary Lourdes adds to others documented in Caraballeda, where neighbors and family members carried out rescue efforts with their own hands during the first few days.
The earthquakes of June 24 were a double seismic event with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, occurring just 39 seconds apart, with epicenters located in the states of Yaracuy and Carabobo, and classified by the United States Geological Survey as the strongest recorded in Venezuela since 1900.
The state of La Guaira accounted for 158 of the 189 collapsed buildings across the country.
NASA estimated that around 59,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and the official death toll rose to 2,295, while the UN estimates that over 50,000 people may be missing under the rubble, a figure that contrasts with the official data from Nicolás Maduro's regime and suggests an underestimation of the actual number of victims.
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