Eduar Velázquez, a 24-year-old Venezuelan residing in Pereira, Colombia, has been visiting shelters and hospitals in La Guaira for over a week without any news of the 6 family members who went missing when the double earthquake of June 24 shook Venezuela.
Eduar was on a video call with his family at the exact moment when the two earthquakes—measuring 7.2 and 7.5, just 39 seconds apart—struck the north of the country. Through the screen, he saw his mother running desperately to protect Massimo, his four-month-old son. That was the last image he had of them.
Her mother, Estefanía, managed to send her a video of debris and smoke before communications were completely cut off. The message that accompanied the images summarized the horror: "The building is sunk, I don't know what else to do."
The family was at a children's party in the Caribe residential complex, located in the Caraballeda parish, one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake. Three of the four buildings in the complex—12 stories high and 416 apartments in total—collapsed. Among the missing are 12 children, baby Massimo, and about 15 adults.
In light of the closure of the Maiquetía International Airport, Eduar undertook a land journey of 819 kilometers from Pereira to Caracas on the same day as the earthquake, navigating security checkpoints and fuel shortages, with a singular declared goal: to find his family "alive or dead."
Once in La Guaira, instead of being paralyzed by anxiety, Eduar joined the rescue efforts alongside other volunteers. In the first two days, he managed to pull nine people alive from the rubble.
"I've had my family for a week now; it hasn't been easy at all, but in the first two days, we brought out quite a few people alive here. I rescued nine people, and that's what kept me going," he recounted in a video released by the EFE agency this Saturday. "If my family hasn't arrived yet, I'm going to rescue the others I can," he added.
Her story reflects the transnational drama experienced by the Venezuelan diaspora following the worst seismic disaster recorded in the country since 1900. Colombia hosts more than 2.8 million Venezuelans, many of whom have lost or are searching for relatives who remained in Venezuela.
Another case that touched the region was that of Joarlys Rodríguez, a Venezuelan migrant in Chile, whose three children and mother were found embracing each other under the rubble in La Guaira.
The official balance at the end of this week reports at least 2,645 dead and 12,666 injured. The UN estimates that nearly 50,000 people remain missing as a result of the double earthquake, while material damages are estimated at 6.7 billion dollars, equivalent to 6% of Venezuela's GDP.
Eduar Velázquez is still in La Guaira. Every day that passes without news is another day that he pursues his search with the same determination that he used to rescue nine strangers from the rubble: "I want to find them, alive or dead."
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