By Alberto Fajardo and Mayela Armas
CATIA LA MAR/LA GUAIRA, Venezuela, July 2 (Reuters) – Rescuers dug out alive a 44-year-old security guard trapped in the ruins of the mall where he worked in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira, more than a week after two strong earthquakes devastated the country’s northern coast.
Work to save Hernan Alberto Gil from the rubble of the nine-story Galerias Playa Grande shopping center began on Monday, according to Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele, who has been posting updates on X about the operation that also involved teams from Chile, the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela.
Rescuers were able to provide him with hydration via tubing, Bukele has said, but needed to dig two separate tunnels to try to reach him, because of the instability of the ruins.
Gil was carried out of the rubble on a stretcher on Thursday morning and loaded into an ambulance as cheering rescuers and reporters looked on.
“I’m grateful to God for keeping him alive for so many days, despite not being able to eat or stay hydrated,” said Gusbimar Gonzalez, Gil’s wife.
“He endured it all like a warrior.”
Rescuers said they abandoned their original plan after deciding the first tunnel could provide structural support but was not safe for a rescue operation, prompting them to open a second access route.
The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes struck less than a minute apart almost eight days ago, killing 2,295 people, according to the latest government figures.
The number of people listed as still missing on an unofficial but widely used online list was down to some 38,600 on Thursday morning, after peaking at nearly 60,000 in the days immediately after the quake.
A United Nations envoy this week said it was procuring 10,000 body bags for Venezuela and the USGS has estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible.
Catastrophe and risk modeling firm Verisk said it expects economic losses from the quakes to top $10 billion.
CIVILIAN RESPONDERS
Venezuela’s socialist government, in power under three different leaders since 1999, has for years promoted “civilian-military-police unity” and high-ranking security officials hold power over huge business interests.
State television has regularly shown interim President Delcy Rodriguez meeting with military and security officials while groups of soldiers as well as police have been patrolling major roads in La Guaira and sometimes directing traffic.
Still, the response to the disaster has been led by civilians, many of them volunteers.
Victims of the quake have spent days trying to dig out loved ones with their hands, shovels and pickaxes, assisted by firefighters, civil protection corps, thousands of members of foreign rescue teams, student doctors and nurses, civilians who normally work as teachers and veterinarians and occasionally, a soldier.
Soldiers working for days alongside civilians in the six collapsed towers of a major public housing project in La Guaira told Reuters they had volunteered to help there.
Many rescuers have decried a lack of heavy machinery needed to move huge slabs of concrete.
Oil minister Paula Henao on Thursday said a cargo of diesel was sent from the country’s largest refining complex, Paraguana, to La Guaira for the rescuers’ use, underscoring previous government statements that the quakes have led to only minor delays at terminals.
Authorities were also inspecting state-run PDVSA’s Catia La Mar fuel terminal for damage, which is located in one of the areas most affected by the quakes.
FLOW OF HOSPITAL PATIENTS EASES
In the days immediately after the twin tremors, much of the water, food and other basic supplies arriving in La Guaira was ferried in by thousands of civilians, many on motorcycles.
Now volunteers are running shelters for those who have lost their homes, receiving some official help but setting their rules and even creating their own tracking system for residents.
At one of the main medical centers serving the disaster zone, a hospital in the Vargas municipality, staff and residents said the flow of patients had begun to ease compared with the days immediately after the quakes.
Beds and mattresses that had filled areas outside the emergency ward eight days earlier had thinned out by Thursday.
Patients requiring specialized treatment are being transferred to hospitals in Caracas after receiving emergency care and first aid, hospital official Carolina Leon said.
Francia Rodriguez, 61, whose sister was hospitalized after suffering a stroke, said care remained available and that the only supplies she had needed to provide were medications.
About 4 miles (6 kilometers) away, a Brazilian Navy field hospital that began operating on Monday had treated 180 people by Thursday, according to commander Leonel Mariano. The facility, spread across five tents near the beach, includes an intensive care unit, operating theater, orthopedics, pediatrics, general medicine and a pharmacy.
“We are coordinating buses to bring people here from the shelters,” Mariano said. “We haven’t performed surgery yet, but we’ve had some intensive care cases, some serious cases.”
The World Health Organization said the earthquake had compounded an already severe humanitarian crisis and strained a health system that was struggling to meet demand. Healthcare workers were also among the victims, affecting the medical response, WHO incident manager Ian Clark said on Thursday.
The agency has released $1.5 million from its emergency contingency fund and shipped medical supplies including trauma kits, protective equipment and body bags.
Even when security officials are present at collapsed buildings, their presence has not always been welcomed.
Some Venezuelans have vented their frustration on social media, sharing videos showing security officials picking through the destruction and taking clothes, appliances and cash.
Reuters has not verified the videos’ authenticity, but the Interior Ministry said that four crime scene police officials have been detained and removed from their jobs for “appropriating financial assets acquired amid the ruins.”
(Reporting by Alberto Fajardo in Catia La Mar and Mayela Armas in La Guaira; additional reporting by Marianna Parraga and Jennifery Rigby; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Cassandra Garrison; editing by Deepa Babington)
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