A survivor rescued after spending more than two days trapped beneath the rubble has shared his remarkable story as Venezuela continues to grapple with the aftermath of the devastating twin earthquakes that have claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
Juan Zapata was inside his fifth-floor apartment overlooking the Caribbean when the powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s coast on June 24.
After finishing dinner, he was preparing to take a shower when the force of the back-to-back earthquakes hurled him across the room. Moments later, the building collapsed around him.
Zapata remained trapped beneath the rubble for two days and seven hours, pinned between twisted steel reinforcement bars before civilian rescuers finally reached him.
“When they were rescuing me, I said, ‘I’m on the fifth floor,’ and they told me, ‘No, you’re in the lower basement,’” Zapata recalled. “I couldn’t believe what had happened to me.”
He suffered several fractured ribs, deep cuts, bruises and injuries to both legs. Although he is still in pain and struggling to breathe comfortably, he says he is grateful to have survived.
“All my material things were lost, but God has given me health,” he said.
Zapata is currently recovering at a field hospital established in La Guaira state by the humanitarian organisation Samaritan’s Purse after his apartment building, Costa Brava, was completely destroyed.
He has also lost his mobile phone, identification documents and all contact with relatives, including his daughter in the United States and his sister in Canada.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan authorities have raised the official death toll from the disaster to 2,954.
The government says nearly 30,000 emergency personnel have been deployed alongside more than 3,200 international rescue workers to assist with ongoing search-and-rescue operations.
Officials estimate that more than 16,000 people have been left homeless, while an unofficial count suggests that over 41,000 people remain missing.
The field hospital treating Zapata has already cared for around 400 patients and carried out nearly 30 surgeries. Medical teams say operations are gradually shifting from emergency trauma care to longer-term community healthcare as recovery efforts continue.
Despite the large-scale response, many survivors and volunteers have criticised the government’s handling of the disaster.
Residents and civilian rescue teams say vital food, medical supplies and heavy machinery arrived too slowly, forcing local volunteers to conduct many rescue operations themselves during the crucial first days after the earthquakes.
At the devastated Los Cocos housing complex in La Guaira, volunteer rescuers continue digging through collapsed buildings in search of missing victims.
Among them is Miguel Poleo, who is searching for his stepdaughter and her family. So far, he has only recovered the family’s dog from the rubble.
“I don’t think they’re alive anymore,” Poleo said.
He criticised the official response, saying ordinary citizens had provided more help than authorities.
“The president said that help arrived quickly, but it wasn’t like that. We’ve gotten help from regular people,” he said.
Poleo added that he intends to remain at the site until every victim has been found.
“We need to find the bodies,” he said.
The twin earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, are the deadliest natural disaster to strike Venezuela in more than a century, leaving widespread destruction, overwhelming emergency services and creating a humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people.
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