11-year-old boy found alive three days after double earthquake in Venezuela

Time is running out to find survivors. There are at least 48 Portuguese among the 1,430 fatal victims already identified.

An 11-year-old boy was rescued alive from the rubble in Arabaledain northern Venezuela, three days after the devastating earthquakes that hit the region, announced the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.

“A few minutes ago, an 11-year-old boy was rescued alive in Caraballeda. At this moment, every life is a source of hope for Venezuela”, Rodríguez on the social network X, in a message accompanied by a video of the child’s rescue.

The rescue will have required approximately six hours of maneuversdescribed by great precisionto remove the child from the wreckage without causing further collapse. The video released by Delcy Rodríguez shows members of the Mexican army, integrated into international rescue teams, concentrated in an opening between the rubble, until they managed to extract the boy alive.

A few minutes ago an 11-year-old boy was rescued alive in Caraballeda. In these hours every life is hope for Venezuela.

— Delcy Rodríguez (@delcyrodriguezv)

O to find survivors, more than 72 hours after two major earthquakes on Wednesday, which caused at least 1,430 deaths and 3,328 injuries, according to the most recent official report.

At least 17 countries, including Portugal and other states of the European Union, sent search teams and rescue for Venezuela.

“In principle, bodies no longer have lifebut thank God, sometimes we manage to find survivors,” said a rescuer from El Salvador in Playa Grande, in La Guaira, a coastal city near Caracas.

The UN estimated on Saturday that almost seven million people were affected by the two earthquakes.

The damage caused is estimated at almost six billion euros, or 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the assessment of the United Nations Development Program.

In Geneva, the head of UN humanitarian aid, Tom Fletcher, told the France-Presse news agency that more than 50,000 people were missing. The number of deaths is therefore expected to “increase considerably”, in the context of “an extremely complex rescue operation”, he added.

A runway at Caracas airport has reopened and is receiving planes arriving from the United States with humanitarian aid, a senior US official announced on Saturday.

Among the dead, there are at least 48 Portuguese and Portuguese descendants, and another 83 are missing or uncontactable.

Earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 occurred 200 kilometers from Caracas, with and were followed by more than 20 replicasaccording to the U.S. Geological Survey. Dozens of buildings collapsed or were seriously damaged in the capital Caracas and in the region of La Guaira, one of the most affected.