Time is running out for the rescue teams deployed in Venezuela after the two earthquakes recorded last Wednesday. With a provisional balance of 1,450 dead and 3,238 injuredthe chances of finding survivors decrease with each hour. Even so, the troops keep hope intact while the search efforts continue.
Among the Spanish victims, the figure in 17 dead and 150 missingwhile another 12 people remain located under the rubble waiting to be rescued.
24 hour shifts to not stop the rescue
The Spanish contingent is made up of 57 USAR team specialists (Urban Search and Rescue), which work uninterruptedly.
While one group completes a 12-hour shift, another takes over to maintain operations throughout the day and into the night.
First Corporal Antonio Diosdado avoids setting a time limit to abandon the search. “Hope is the last thing we are going to lose.”
Türkiye’s precedent fuels hope
The rescuers remember an experience they had in 2023, when the UME managed to rescue a mother and her two children alive five days after the earthquake.
Although Diosdado admits that this was an exceptional case, he insists that The goal is to keep searching as long as there is even the slightest possibility. to find survivors.
That perseverance paid off last Saturday, when the Spanish military rescued two people alive trapped in the ruins of two buildings in the Vistamar residential complex: Adelaida, 60, and Antonio, 35.
In both cases it was the neighbors themselves who alerted the teams when they heard knocks coming from inside the rubble.
Technology and precision to save lives
The UME works with geophones capable of detecting sounds or movements between six and seven meters deep and with wired night vision cameras that are inserted through small open cavities between the rubble. However, specialists emphasize that rescue requires extreme precision.
Each intervention consists of opening safe access to the victim without causing new collapses that could permanently bury them, which is why the use of heavy machinery is ruled out.
La Guaira, the most punished area
The Spanish operational center is located in a baseball stadium that it shares with international teams from Switzerland, Chile, Italy and the Netherlands.
The Spanish military They carry out their operations in the state of La Guairaone of the areas most devastated by earthquakes.
So far they have not been assigned to rescue any of the Spaniards located under the collapsed buildings, although they assure that they will respond immediately if anyone is within their area of action.
“We will be there as long as necessary”
One of the greatest dangers remains the instability of thousands of damaged buildings that remain standing and threaten new collapses.
The Spanish contingent arrived last Friday with ability to be completely self-sufficient for a week thanks to its own supplies. However, Antonio Diosdado makes it clear that this deadline does not mark the end of the mission. “We will be there as long as necessary,” he says.
