By Bárbara Agelvis Maza
Catia La Mar, Venezuela, June 25 (EFE).- «Don’t go, don’t leave me,» pleads Amir, a 16-year-old boy trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed apartment building after the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday.
More than 12 hours after the twin tremors measuring 7.5 and 7.2 in magnitude, Amir remained buried beneath the remains of the Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi residential complex in Playa Grande, a district of Catia La Mar in the coastal state of La Guaira. His face and part of his torso were still visible deep in the debris.
La Guaira, just west of Caracas, has been the region hardest hit by the earthquakes, according to acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who declared it a natural disaster zone because of the scale of the destruction.
For Amir, however, help was yet to arrive amid diminishing strength.
«I think I’ll be left disabled. It’s getting heavier and heavier,» said the teenager, a secondary school student and aspiring musician, referring to the weight of the rubble pinning him down.
He was with his father when the earthquakes struck and has not heard from him since.
Playa Grande and much of La Guaira remain largely without organized rescue teams. Residents said before dawn on Thursday that only a handful of firefighters had reached the area and that most rescue efforts were being carried out by neighbours.
Amid tears and uncertainty, residents searched through the rubble for missing relatives.
What exists on the ground, they say, is largely a human chain of volunteers working without heavy machinery or specialized rescue equipment.
«Help!» and «Assistance!» echo from collapsed buildings and structures left precariously standing on weakened columns.
The towers, once prized for their views of the Caribbean Sea, have become scenes of tragedy.
As car alarms blended with birdsong at daybreak, another voice cried out from beneath the debris.
«Where are you? What’s your name?» a neighbour shouted. «First floor,» came the reply.
The survivor had been trapped for nearly 12 hours since Wednesday’s earthquakes.
«Please help me,» the voice cried again. Nearby lay the body of a woman.
Elsewhere, residents search desperately for a man named Jesús. About 200 meters away, another group was trying to locate an 11-year-old girl named Dana in a housing complex named after former president Hugo Chávez.
Dana’s mother pointed frantically toward the rubble while pleading with rescuers to find her daughter.
In a country unaccustomed to earthquakes of such magnitude, security forces and civilians alike were improvising ways to remove debris and reach those still trapped.
The desperation was palpable.
Outside another collapsed building, relatives of a woman named Eva vowed to keep searching.
«Eva, Eva, Eva,» they shouted repeatedly, embracing one another for strength.
As morning broke, helicopters began to appear over the skies of La Guaira, a region known until 2019 as Vargas and still marked by memories of the devastating floods and landslides of 1999 that claimed thousands of lives.
Now, once again, the state faces another disaster, while survivors continue waiting for help beneath the rubble. EFE
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