Boy, 12, survived five days under rubble in Venezuela with only hot sauce

A 12-year-old boy has recounted his harrowing experience of surviving for five days trapped beneath the debris of a collapsed building in Macuto, Venezuela. Carlos Miguel Colmenares was the sole survivor of the La Estrella building, a nine-story structure that crumbled on June 24 during a series of earthquakes.

Rescued by international brigades from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, Carlos Miguel's reunion with his father quickly gained traction on social media. Now receiving medical attention at the Hospital de Clínicas Caracas, the young survivor detailed his ordeal, emphasizing his efforts to maintain composure and mental clarity.

"I grabbed my phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone it all around me," Carlos Miguel explained. "So when the battery ran out (on the phone), I could have a kind of mental map: Here is the wall, here is the furniture, and there is the refrigerator." He described the limited space, how a table protected his face, and a plastic cup cushioned his head.

The psychological and physical toll of his confinement was immense. "It was too difficult to spend the nights and days, because by being still for so long, my body started to hurt," he said. "What I did was move my legs a little." His only sustenance was a small bottle of hot sauce. "One of the most horrible things is that there was nothing, not even water, nothing. The only thing I could drink to quench my thirst was a bottle of hot sauce," he expressed.