LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Nearly a month after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, residents of La Guaira, the hardest-hit state, continue the grueling search for loved ones buried beneath collapsed buildings. Among them are teenage brothers Winder Delfín, 17, and Deivi Delfín, 15, who have spent 25 days digging through rubble in hopes of finding their family members.
On June 24, when the earthquakes hit, Winder and Deivi were returning from a water park. They watched in shock as their 12-story public housing building pancaked to the ground, burying their mother, Yusmani, 35, brother Moissés, 10, grandmother Carmen, 69, and others beneath tons of concrete and debris. With few professional rescue teams available, much of the recovery work has fallen to survivors and volunteers using makeshift tools such as shovels, pickaxes, sledgehammers, and even kitchen knives.
The brothers, together with their father Deivid Delfín and stepfather Giovanni Berroterán, have been tunneling through the debris where their family’s apartment once stood. Winder described spotting his grandmother’s flower-print dress in the rubble, a grim sign that bodies lay nearby. Days after, they located the remains of their mother and younger brother in the kitchen area. The process of extraction was slow and perilous, compounded by the fragile state of the collapsed structure and the physical toll on the searchers.
Due to Venezuela’s diminished state capacity—attributed to years of economic difficulties, corruption, and international sanctions—official search and recovery efforts have been limited. Soldiers frequently patrol the streets but mainly perform support tasks, while civilian survivors and volunteers carry out much of the excavation and body recovery. Christian volunteer groups from other cities have joined local families, offering support and prayers amid the emotional strain.
Psychologists working with survivors indicate that the full emotional impact of the disaster remains largely unaddressed, with many focusing on the physical demands of searching as a means of coping. Volunteer counselor Obtavio Guerra noted that grief “is lying dormant, like a wave that could arrive at any moment.”
Official figures place the death toll at 5,278, though government estimates suggest the number could exceed 10,000. In La Guaira, the relentless efforts of families like the Delfíns exemplify the human cost behind these numbers, as they persist in their search for closure. Despite exhaustion and hardship, the priority remains clear: recovering the bodies of those lost so they may finally rest and allowing families the possibility of mourning and healing.