“Every time rescuers call for silence, hope briefly returns. Families stop talking. Machinery shuts down. Everyone waits for the sound of a voice beneath the concrete. Most times, only silence answers back.”
The rescue teams raise their fists into the air.
“Silencio.”
Traffic stops. Heavy machinery falls quiet. Conversations end instantly.
One rescuer kneels beside a narrow hole drilled through a thick concrete slab, pressing his ear against the opening while another shines a flashlight into the darkness below.
They are listening for signs of life beneath what was once a 12-storey apartment building in the Venezuelan coastal city of La Guaira.
For families gathered around the ruins, every pause brings hope.
And every silence breaks it again.
The building was destroyed when two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela last Wednesday, killing at least 1,700 people, according to official figures.
The country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the disaster as “the most brutal natural catastrophe” in Venezuela’s history.
Standing only metres from the collapsed building is Miguel Oscar Núñez.
His 34-year-old son, Angel, was inside when the earthquake struck.
As rescue workers resume digging after hearing nothing beneath the rubble, Miguel’s frustration becomes impossible to hide.
“My son, like hundreds of others, is trapped under the rubble. But we need more support from authorities urgently to dig them out. It’s possible that the earthquake has not killed him, but can you imagine if he is killed because of the negligence of the authorities?”
Nearby, Kevin Montilla clutches his mobile phone.
He was at work when disaster struck.
His wife, Luzmary, and their 16-year-old daughter, Jhoerliyzmar, were at home.
They have not been found.
Kevin says the first people to begin rescue efforts were not government workers.
They were neighbours.
“The rescue operation started very late and it’s been slow. Initially it was only people who live in the community who came in to help. The police just came to check, but they didn’t help. The government’s response has been frustrating and impotent.”
When reporters visited the scene, rescue teams from Venezuela and Colombia were working with cranes and excavators to clear the debris.
But relatives insist precious time had already been lost.
Many believe lives could have been saved if heavy equipment had arrived sooner.
The suffering stretches far beyond one collapsed building.
At a hospital in La Guaira, Deilisbeth Herreira scans lists of the injured and dead, searching for her daughters, Greydelys, 12, and Graybelys, 13.
She had been at work when the earthquake struck.
Now she searches hospitals, shelters and collapsed neighbourhoods with little official help.
“I have help from no one. No machines or rescuers have been sent to dig through the rubble. It’s like you’ve been left on your own to find your loved ones.”
Fighting back tears, she adds:
“My daughters were quiet, studious girls. I just want them back at any cost.”
Across La Guaira, similar stories echo through streets lined with destroyed apartment blocks.
At the Bello Horizonte housing complex, families wearing gloves and face masks dig through broken concrete using little more than shovels, crowbars and their bare hands.
Among them is William Rodrigues, searching for his uncle.
“The stench is horrible here. But I’m still trying because I’m looking for my uncle. We cannot just stand by idly when there’s the possibility that there might be people alive under the rubble.”
He says rescue teams reached many neighbourhoods far too late.
“Help arrived very late in most places, and in some, it has still not arrived.”
Nearby, Juan Avendo, whose own home was destroyed, recalls hearing desperate cries from beneath collapsed buildings shortly after the earthquake.
Without waiting for official help, he and his nephew Enyer Musics began digging with their hands.
“We could hear the screams and shouts of people trapped under the rubble. So we tried to help them ourselves, using our bare hands, clawing through the debris with our nails.”
Eventually they reached one survivor.
“We heard her screaming in the night. But it was dark and we couldn’t do anything. So the next morning we went and tried to find her. First we were able to pass her a bottle of water. And then we worked to pull her out.”
According to residents, the first official rescue teams did not arrive until Friday, almost two days after the earthquake struck.
Firefighters from Venezuela later worked alongside rescue crews from El Salvador and the United States, pulling several more survivors from the wreckage before operations were officially suspended on Sunday.
For many families, however, the search is far from over.
Some believe hundreds of people may still lie beneath the ruins, their bodies never recovered, and their names never added to the official death toll.
As rescue equipment falls silent once again, relatives continue to wait beside the rubble, hoping that the next call for silence will finally be followed by the sound of someone still alive.
