“They have us going from hospital to hospital,” recounts family of missing Nicaraguan in Venezuela after earthquakes

Families continue a desperate search for Reyna Isabel Balladares Chavarría, a Nicaraguan woman, and her Venezuelan husband, Carlos Gutiérrez Olivares, who vanished following earthquakes in Venezuela on June 24, 2026. Hope was briefly rekindled on July 2, 2026, when a Colombian rescuer told the families he had pulled the couple alive from debris in La Guaira, the state most devastated by the tremors. However, subsequent efforts to locate them in hospitals across Caracas and La Guaira have yielded no concrete information. "They have us going from hospital to hospital, and we haven't been able to verify anything," said Noeli Mogollón, the Venezuelan husband's niece. She explained that hospital records are often incomplete or inaccessible, making confirmation of the couple's whereabouts nearly impossible. A sister of Balladares Chavarría traveled from Nicaragua to join the search, funded by a $2,000 collection from friends and acquaintances who learned of the case through social media. Despite these efforts, 15 days after the tragedy, the families remain without definitive news. The rescuer reportedly stated that the couple was taken to different hospitals, adding another layer of complexity to the search. The families are navigating a race against time, facing the immense challenge of confirming every lead amid a chaotic post-disaster environment.

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He told us yes, that indeed that day he had rescued the two people.