SHE SURVIVED DAYS UNDER A COLLAPSED BUILDING… HOLDING ON TO HOPE. The death toll from Venezuela’s deadly earthquakes continues to rise, with more than 1,400 lives already lost. Yet amid unimaginable devastation, rescue crews discovered a miracle—a 9-month-old baby alive beneath the rubble before saving her mother moments later. As aftershocks continue, thousands of rescuers are still searching for survivors who may be trapped beneath the debris. 📌 Read the full story in the comments. 👇
Venezuela earthquakes live updates: At least 1,400 dead as rescuers save 9-month-old baby amid hunt for survivors
Footage shows American and Venezuelan search and rescue teams pulling the crying baby from underneath a collapsed building in La Guaira.
A couple embraces in front of a building destroyed by twin earthquakes that struck La Guaira three days earlier.
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A nine-month-old baby and her mother were rescued from the rubble in Venezuela as rescuers continue to scour for survivors in the wake of last week’s twin earthquakes that have left at least 1,450 people dead.
In a video released by the State Department on X over the weekend, American and Venezuelan search and rescue teams can be seen pulling the crying baby from underneath the collapsed building in La Guaira. “Against impossible odds, hope endures,” the department wrote.
A miracle rescue of an 18-day-old baby and his mother, Dayana Patiño, has also been shared thousands of times online.
Patiño told BBC News that her son, Juan David, gave her “motivation to be awake and alert” as her eighth-floor apartment in the northern coastal region of La Guaira collapsed to the ground in the twin tremors.
Pinned under a rock and with a left leg trapped under the concrete, the mother said she used her remaining energy to touch her son’s nose to check he was still breathing.
Rescuers are continuing to hunt for survivors, but their efforts are being hampered by aftershocks, with the latest occurring on Monday morning
The shock measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, the United States Geological Survey said, while Colombia’s geological survey put the magnitude at 5.1, AP reported.
Authorities said Sunday that more than 770 buildings had totally or partially collapsed from the earthquakes, twice as many as were reported destroyed or damaged on Friday, with families reporting at least 68,900 people missing as of Saturday.
Search teams and foreign aid continued to arrive over the weekend from the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, France and elsewhere.
On Saturday, Mexican rescue teams climbed over collapsed buildings and pushed their heads into holes in the pancaked concrete to search for signs of life, occasionally hearing movement.
“We’re rescuers from the Mexican military, if there’s anyone down there still alive, make noise or scream. Now!” one man shouted.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television that more than 14,000 members of the military and police are patrolling the area, where access is now blocked and special permits are required to enter. However, many in disaster zones said they had seen little of their government.
“We’re not going to stop,” Rodríguez said in a statement over the weekend. “As hard as this is, we are going to keep going on the path of solidarity.”
The effects of the devastating earthquakes are likely to be especially severe in the country, which has been wracked by financial and political crises in recent years.
Live coverage is over57 updates
Jasmine Andersson
Website launched to track down hospital patients
The details of nearly 3,000 hospital patients across three states have been registered on a website, where people can search for their loved ones.
A total of 11 hospitals are listed in La Guaira and Caracas on the site, localizapacientes.com, which translates to ‘locate patients.com’ in English.
Families can search for their loved ones by name or ID number.
The website is the latest grassroots effort to track down more than 50,000 people who have been declared missing in the wake of the tremors, with widespread power outages and communication failures caused by the disaster.
Jasmine Andersson
The latest updates
A nurse checks a volunteer who was trapped for several hours until he was rescued from under the rubble of a building.
(via REUTERS / REUTERS)
Rescue efforts are continuing in Venezuela after devastating back-to-back earthquakes struck the country on June 24.
Here are the latest updates.
More than 1,450 people have been reported dead since two back-to-back earthquakes struck northern Venezuela.
Authorities said more than 3,100 wounded people have been treated, including many with crush injuries.
More than 50,000 people were reported missing on Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela, a missing-persons website, although it is unclear how many have been found.
Smaller aftershocks have occasionally shaken the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, including a magnitude 4.8 quake on Saturday, and a magnitude 4.6 quake on Monday morning.
Rescue workers are still scrambling to recover people trapped underneath the rubble in the capital and the northern state of La Guaira, with the miracle recovery of a 9-month-old baby bringing hope.
Venezuelan officials said 17 flights carrying more than 1,600 rescue team members from the U.K., Canada, Mexico and Brazil had touched down by Saturday.
The U.S. has pledged the largest aid response, allocating $150 million to faith-based aid groups and two United Nations agencies, as well as 150 search and rescue workers and 12 dogs.
Jasmine Andersson
More than 770 buildings partially or totally collapsed
Authorities said on Sunday that more than 770 buildings had totally or partially collapsed from the earthquakes, twice as many as were reported destroyed or damaged on Friday.
The risk of further damage remains as aftershocks continued to shake Venezuela, with quakes measuring 4.2 and 4.5 magnitude hitting on Sunday morning.
Rescue efforts in La Guaira — the hardest-hit area — appeared significantly more organized on Sunday as international rescue missions arrived en masse. In previous days, residents there had expressed frustration and anger about the level of response.
The government reported on state television that more than 14,000 members of the military and police are now patrolling La Guaira state, where access is blocked and special permits are required to enter.
Jasmine Andersson
18-day-old baby and mother rescued from rubble
The mother of an 18-day-old baby rescued from the rubble of her home days after the back-to-back earthquakes said her son gave her the motivation to stay alive.
Dayano Patino told BBC News she was washing up in her eighth-floor apartment when the earthquake happened. Next thing she knew, she was “flying.”
She and her son were trapped under the collapsed rubble of their apartment complex, with Patino’s head pressed against a rock while her left leg was trapped under concrete.
“Every now and then I was touching his nose for proof that he was still breathing,” she said.
Saving her screams for when she heard people nearby, the pair were eventually rescued after she heard her brother calling her name.
She said: “I said to myself, this is my only chance. From the top of my lungs I cried out… I screamed ‘Here I am’ with all my might, and he said ‘I found you, and I promise you that I won’t leave until I get you out’.”
Jasmine Andersson
Heartbreak for soccer player after wife and two children found dead
After days of searching, an Argentine soccer player for a Venezuelan club has learned that his wife and two children died in the earthquakes.
In a heartbreaking turn of events, Deportivo La Guaira player Lucas Trejo spent the last three days searching through the rubble for any sign of his wife, Yanina Maranella, and their two children, Aarón and Ainhoa.
Trejo, 38, was attending the team’s training camp in Caracas when the two earthquakes struck, CNN Español reported. After the twin tremors struck, he immediately rushed to his home in La Guaira, where the earthquakes are reported to have caused the most damage.
On Sunday, Deportivo La Guaira confirmed that Trejo’s wife and children had died. In a social media post, the club said it “deeply mourns the irreparable loss” of Trejo’s family.
“From the #DLG we join the grief that overwhelms player Lucas Trejo, for the sensitive passing of his wife, Yanina Maranella, and of his children, Aarón and Ainhoa Trejo,” the team wrote on social media. “Peace to their souls and comfort for Lucas and all his loved ones.”
Jasmine Andersson
Baby rescued from rubble ‘against all odds’
A nine-month-old baby has been rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Venezuela after being trapped for three days.
Footage shows American and Venezuelan search and rescue teams pulling the crying baby from underneath the collapsed building in La Guiara.
“Every life saved is a victory,” the Department of State wrote on X.
The mother was also pulled alive from the rubble a while later, AFP reported.
Alan McGuinness
Drone view shows extent of devastation
Images taken from a drone show the extent of the devastation in La Guaira, Venezuela.
A drone view shows buildings destroyed by earthquakes, in La Guaira, Venezuela,.
(via EUTERS / REUTERS)
Alan McGuinness
Pope expresses solidarity with Venezuela
Pope Leo expressed solidarity with the people of Venezuela in the wake of Wednesday’s twin earthquakes.
“I wish to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes that caused numerous victims and injuries,” the pontiff said in Spanish before worshippers gathered for Sunday’s Angelus prayer in Rome.
He also expressed gratitude to rescuers and all those helping Venezuelans.
Before becoming pope in 2025, Leo spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru.
Leo is planning a major tour of southern Latin America in November, expected to include Peru, Argentina and Uruguay.
Pope Leo leads the Angelus prayer from a window of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican.
(via REUTERS / REUTERS)
Meanwhile, the European Union says it has mobilized 5 million euros ($5.9 million) in emergency assistance for those affected.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she had spoken with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, to express Europe’s solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
“We have activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism, with several member states rapidly deploying search and rescue teams, firefighters and medical personnel,” she said.
The EU’s Copernicus satellite system is helping map the damage and direct assistance to the areas most in need, Kallas added.
Alan McGuinness
U.S. team helps rescue mother and 9-month-old baby
An American search and rescue team helped rescue a mother and her 9-month-old baby from the rubble of a building.
Footage shared on X shows the team from Virginia helping to extract the woman on a stretcher, with cheers and clapping heard as she is removed from the structure.
Details for Americans in Venezuela needing assistance
Americans in Venezuela who need emergency consular assistance are being urged to contact the U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs at 1-202-501-4444.
Family and friends can find out your location and well-being by enrolling at http://step.state.gov, a free service to allow U.S. citizens and nationals to register their trip abroad so the Department of State can accurately and quickly contact them in case of emergency.
The U.S. Department of State also operates a Security Updates for U.S. Citizens WhatsApp channel where those affected can get the latest updates.
Alan McGuinness
Almost 50,000 reported missing on citizen website
The number of people reported missing on a crowdsourced Venezuelan website stands at just below 50,000.
Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela was designed to track — and, hopefully, locate — people affected by the disaster.
More than 60,000 people have been reported missing since Wednesday, when the earthquakes struck.
Of these, 49,933 have yet to be found, and 14,482 have been located. These figures have not been confirmed by officials.
Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela website screenshot
Alan McGuinness
Boy, 11, pulled alive from rubble, acting president says
Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president, shared a video on her X account, which she says shows an 11-year-old boy being rescued alive from the rubble of a building in Caraballeda.
“In these hours, every life is hope for Venezuela,” she added, without providing any more details about the boy or his condition.
Is there a ‘golden window’ for disaster rescues?
Some emergency disaster experts refer to the first 48 or 72 hours after a disaster as a “golden window” to find survivors — a period when they are most likely to survive without food or water.
However, other researchers maintain that there should be no rigid upper limit on how long people can survive, particularly when they may have been trapped in rubble caused by earthquakes, such as those in Venezuela.
They say there is often “a wide variety in survival ‘time to rescue'” and that the majority of documented rescues take place within the first five or six days. However, even this data should be treated with caution, due to a lack of detailed, consistent reporting that often accompanies the chaotic scenes in the aftermath of a disaster.
In northern Venezuela, Herculean efforts are underway to find as many survivors as possible, with volunteers from Grey Bull Rescue, a donor-funded organization headquartered in Tampa, joining locals in a race against time.
Bryan Stern, the chairman of the volunteer service that has operated in Haiti, Syria and Lebanon, told Reuters that, while it wanted to find trapped American citizens, “we save lives, no matter who.”
Stern said his team specializes in filling gaps in the critical early phase of disaster response by moving to areas that have not yet been searched.
“The way we do it is literally we get on the ground, and we look for places that haven’t been searched yet,” he said. “When there are teams of people digging in a particular place, we get out of the way … we’ll go digging other places.”
Alan McGuinness
Latest images from Venezuela as death toll continues to rise
These are some of the latest pictures from Venezuela as the death toll from Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes rose above 1,400.
A couple embraces in front of a building destroyed by twin earthquakes three days after they struck La Guaira.
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Military personnel control access to La Guaira state as heavy machinery is deployed to clear debris.
(Anadolu via Getty Images)
People and rescuers search for victims amid debris of a demolished building.
(Jesus Vargas via Getty Images)
Rescue personnel assist in rescue efforts after earthquakes hit the country.
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
A damaged vehicle lies amid rubble
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
Andrew Romano
Earthquake response will be ‘a months-long, not weeks-long’ undertaking, says IRC official
The scale of the Venezuela earthquakes and the state of the country’s infrastructure mean that “this is going to be a months-long, not weeks-long response” effort, according to Elinor Raikes, vice president at the International Rescue Committee.
“The airport is damaged. That is presenting a real obstacle to getting in supplies at scale,” Raikes told Reuters. But “before this disaster hit … there were 8 million people in Venezuela that have been in need of humanitarian assistance. … So you have quite extensive preexisting need that now is exacerbated by, obviously, the very widespread damage of the earthquake.”
Andrew Romano
More than 50,000 reported missing on citizen website
The number of people reported missing on a crowdsourced Venezuelan website has now risen above 50,000 for the first time since the earthquakes earlier this week.
Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela was designed to track — and, hopefully, locate — people affected by the disaster.
Just 10 hours ago, a total of 11,259 people had been logged on the site, with 633 marked as safe and 10,626 marked as missing.
Now the total number of names has climbed to 62,593 — and 52,373 of those people have yet to be found. These figures have not been confirmed by officials.
“If you can’t reach someone, report it here,” the website urges. “And if you have found them, let us know — so their name brings peace, not anguish.”
The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the death toll from the quakes will most likely run into the thousands, with a substantial probability of it exceeding 10,000.
Dylan Stableford
A mother dies saving daughter in Venezuela earthquakes, her husband says
Heartbreaking stories continue to emerge in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Venezuela.
The BBC reported that a mother and the wife of a professional soccer player died while saving the life of their young daughter.
Héctor “Kike” Bello announced the death of his wife, identified by local media outlets as Andrea, in an Instagram post addressed to her.
“I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her, my love,” he wrote, per the BBC’s translation. “How you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who never abandoned her, even as you took your last breaths.”
In a separate post, Bello wondered how he’d have the strength to do so.
“How do I explain to your daughter that you lost your life to save hers, and that I wasn’t there to do anything? How do I explain it? Give me strength now,” he wrote.
Dylan Stableford
Death toll rises to 920
The death toll from this week’s powerful back-to-back earthquakes has risen to at least 920, Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the country’s National Assembly, said on Friday.
At least 3,360 people were injured, Rodríguez said. Both figures are expected to climb as rescue workers sift through the rubble left by the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck on Wednesday evening.
According to Rodriguez, 243 people have been rescued.
“Every person saved is a miracle,” he said.
Dylan Stableford
Pope Leo sends ‘initial emergency donation’ to Venezuela
As rescue efforts continue in Venezuela, Pope Leo has sent an “initial emergency donation” of 100,000 euros to support relief efforts.
According to the Vatican, the aid “is only a first step, with further assistance to follow in response to the needs identified by the local Church.”
Prior to becoming pope, Leo spent many years in nearby Peru and served as the head of the pontifical commission for Latin America.
Dylan Stableford
U.S. military official arrives in Venezuela
U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard arrives in Caracas early Friday.
(U.S. Southern Command)
A top U.S. military official who will coordinate the Pentagon’s relief efforts in Venezuela arrived in Caracas early on Friday.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard will “plan, coordinate, and direct the U.S. military’s unparalleled logistical and operational capabilities to support the rapid, life-saving movement of response personnel, equipment, and humanitarian assistance into affected areas,” according to U.S. Southern Command.
Specifically, U.S. military forces “will utilize fixed and rotor wing aircraft to provide specialized mobility services and assist U.S. Government personnel, search and rescue teams, and partners assessing damage and delivering critical life-saving assistance.”
Their arrival comes nearly six months after U.S. special forces launched a military strike in Venezuela, capturing then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.