Hope Fades for Survivors Four Days After Venezuela Quake

Four days after powerful earthquakes rocked Venezuela, the hope of finding survivors is rapidly fading. In Playa Grande, a sector of the coastal state of La Guaira, families like Leonela Delgado's continue to sift through the rubble of collapsed buildings, their efforts hampered by a lack of heavy machinery and adequate equipment.

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The hope is the last thing to be lost, but we don't have much hope anymore.

"The hope is the last thing to be lost, but we don't have much hope anymore," Delgado, 38, told EFE, describing the grim reality. She recounted how initial efforts to rescue those alive in the Belo Horizonte building, which saw most of its 17 floors crumble, have yielded no success. "People who were alive when we arrived and in the following days, we no longer have signs of them. Likewise, hopefully, we can still recover someone alive, but the truth is that as time passes, hope diminishes, right? Also because of the circumstances in which the building was left," she added.

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People who were alive when we arrived and in the following days, we no longer have signs of them. Likewise, hopefully, we can still recover someone alive, but the truth is that as time passes, hope diminishes, right? Also because of the circumstances in which the building was left.

Delgado, like many in the community, has become an impromptu rescuer, driven by desperation. She shared harrowing experiences of pulling deceased individuals from the debris, highlighting the critical need for proper tools and trained personnel. "We didn't have the tools, the machinery, or the adequate equipment to be able to extract and move those people," she stated, criticizing the insufficient government response.

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We didn't have the tools, the machinery, or the adequate equipment to be able to extract and move those people.

The double earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, have claimed at least 1,450 lives, making them the deadliest seismic event in Venezuela in a century. Despite the scale of the disaster, residents report a lack of organized government aid, relying instead on civilian efforts and limited assistance from international rescue teams from Italy and Ecuador. This situation draws parallels to past natural disasters in Venezuela, such as the 1999 La Guaira landslide, which resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread criticism of the government's disaster response.

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The police come, take a video, take a photo and leave. This has been the recurring factor since the incident occurred... everything has been voluntary, it has not been a contingency plan carried out by any governmental entity.