More than two months after the devastating earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, tens of thousands of families remain without news of their loved ones, in a tragedy that AP documented through the case of Andrés David Molina Mendoza, an 18-year-old whose family has had no word from him since the quakes ravaged La Guaira.
Two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, occurring just 39 seconds apart, turned the coastal state of La Guaira — which is home to the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía and densely populated areas like Caraballeda and Catia La Mar — into the hardest-hit region of the country.
The building where Andrés David lived with his mother, Noribel Mendoza, and his brother Ángel Eduardo collapsed during the earthquakes.
His aunt Antonella Molina and his nephew Pedro have been searching La Guaira for any sign of the young man for weeks, but to no avail.
"We have never received support from the government to help us find the missing people. Never," Antonella told AP.
The magnitude of the human drama far exceeds the official figures disseminated by the Chavista regime led by the acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
While the Venezuelan government maintained a count of just 157 missing persons since the first day without updating it consistently, the UN estimated that there were up to 50,000 people unaccounted for nationwide, and the civic platform Encuéntralos recorded over 41,000 reports of individuals who could not be located.
The governor of La Guaira himself acknowledged 1,579 individuals with unknown whereabouts just in his jurisdiction, with a total of 7,265 deaths in the state—a figure that exceeds the official national count at that time.
The death toll released by the government has steadily increased: from 164 dead on June 25 to 6,509 by August 25, according to reports from official Jorge Rodríguez.
The removal of debris partially explains why so many families remain in uncertainty: as of August 26, only 28.61% of the estimated total of debris—about 600,790 tons—has been cleared, which means that the majority of the collapses have not yet been removed.
Among the victims with ties to Cuba, at least 32 Cubans were reported missing in the initial days following the earthquakes, concentrated in La Guaira.
One of the most heartbreaking cases was that of Lázara Yumara Villaurrutia Rodríguez, a 35-year-old Cuban doctor who went missing along with her Venezuelan husband and their seven-month-old baby, whose search involved family members from both countries.
The Cuban couple formed by Olivia Hernández Pérez and Silvio René Garzón Molina also disappeared following the collapse of the Coral Park building, along with a family of six associated with the Oasis Beach and Resjurel buildings.
Cuban authorities have activated the phone number 7 8321484 for the families of Cubans missing in Venezuela to report cases.
"Everyone deserves closure to this tragedy," expressed the families of the missing, as reported by El País in July.
With more than 70% of the debris still unremoved and tens of thousands of people missing, the search for the disappeared in Venezuela is emerging as a humanitarian crisis that will last for months.
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