Rescuers rescue Venezuelan man buried for 8 days in 'disaster zone'

Man is rescued after 150 hours in Venezuela
Venezuelan rescuers managed to rescue this Thursday (2) a Venezuelan trapped for 8 days under the rubble of a shopping mall in the La Guaira region, Venezuela. The moment of rescue was witnessed by GloboNews reporter Pedro Pannunzio. (see the video above)
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Hernán Gil, a 43-year-old security guard, had been buried in the security guard of the building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a city devastated on June 24 by earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, which left more than 2,200 people dead and thousands missing.
He was removed on a stretcher and taken to an ambulance that must transport him to Caracas, 40 kilometers away.
Hernan Gil was rescued after 8 days under the rubble of an earthquake in Venezuela
Federico Parra / AFP
Rescue of Hernan Gil in Catia La Mar, Venezuela
Federico Parra/AFP
Man is rescued after eight days among the rubble in Venezuela
Federico Parra/AFP
How it was the rescue
Rescuers attempt to rescue Venezuelan Hernán Gil, trapped for 7 days under the rubble of a shopping mall in La Guaira, Venezuela.
Disclosure/Fire Department of Chile
Faced with the difficulties in getting to where he was trapped, hundreds of rescuers from different countries worked non-stop for three days.
Efforts have become a race against time, at a time when finding earthquake survivors is increasingly scarce.
Teams from the United States, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela excavated along two simultaneous routes to try to reach Gil. See the video below.
"He is very well psychologically," one of the rescuers during the work told the AFP news agency, describing Gil as a man of faith. "He says he remembers his daughter's birthday, he's calm."
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"I've never seen anything so difficult, I don't know if there has been such a long rescue before with these characteristics", commented to AFP a rescuer who preferred not to reveal his name.
The teams reinforced the foundations with wood and iron to prevent the structure, which was tilting, from collapsing completely. An ambulance and a medical team were mobilized.
The Chilean Fire Department published a video on Instagram that shows Gil inside his cabin, as he moves his head to look at the camera, wearing a mask and with his right eye red.
"This is truly a miracle," Gil's wife, Gusbimar González, told AFP. "He was working in the guardhouse and the tremor caused the guardhouse to move, he was left between the walls."
He receives hydration through a probe and a tube was installed to supply air.
"This is a very complicated access structure," Cristian Vera, head of the Chilean rescue team, told AFP, as the rescue continued during the early hours of Thursday.
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The rescue attempt took place when the hope of finding more survivors was already over. it was over. The country's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, decreed seven days of national mourning "in honor" of the victims.
Dozens of ruined buildings were marked with the letter D, for "deceased", which indicates that the site has already been inspected by rescue teams, in accordance with the international nomenclature used in this type of disaster.
"You don't waste time in a place where you don't expect to find people alive", Javier explained to AFP Rhodes, coordinator of a Spanish rescue group. The vast majority of affected buildings in La Guaira have already been marked, he added.
According to the most recent official report, the collapse of hundreds of buildings left at least 2,295 dead, while the UN estimates that the tragedy left almost 50,000 missing.
Although the government avoids naming those missing, it states that there were around 30,000 people in La Guaira on the day of the earthquakes, of which 6,461 were rescued and more than 13 thousand left the region on their own or with the help of family and friends. Nothing is known about the rest.
Accumulation of needs
American firefighters work to rescue La Guaira, Venezuela, after earthquake
Matias Delacroix/AP Photo
Although the chances are diminishing, some are clinging to the miraculous rescue of a 3-year-old child found this week by Jordanian rescuers under the rubble of a building. Social networks continue to be flooded with photos of children, elderly people and couples accompanied by their names, descriptions and a telephone number to receive information.
Attention was also slowly turning to the thousands who were left homeless and for whom there was not enough food, as warned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Many of these people spend their days in parking lots, sports courts or precarious campsites in the open.
"Nothing was coming here. Last night, they started bringing us water. The sun is burning us, most of them don't have tents," Fátima Berroterán, 56, resident of a condominium that suffered serious damage in La Guaira, told AFP.
The government counts almost 13 thousand people homeless as a result of the earthquakes, a number far removed from UN estimate, which points to up to seven million people in this condition.
Many of them denounce negligence by the authorities, while exiled opponents this Wednesday asked the United States to exclude the government from reconstruction, accusing it of corruption.
The government, which strengthened relations with Washington after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January, announced on Wednesday that it is preparing an "accelerated housing construction process".
It will be a titanic job, as 58,000 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed, according to satellite observations from NASA, the American space agency.
Disease risk
Aerial view of Caraballeda, in the state of La Guaira, Venezuela, on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, after consecutive earthquakes
Miguel Medina/Pool Photo via AP
The UN World Food Program asked the international community 50 million dollars (R$ 259 million) to provide assistance to around 500,000 people for three months.
Before the tragedy, the UN estimated that almost 8 million people needed humanitarian aid in Venezuela, plunged into a serious crisis.
The urgency for food and shelter is compounded by the risk of epidemics. The World Health Organization warned of "extreme pressure" on health services and the risk of viral or infectious diseases.
In total, 27 countries mobilized experts and dogs to search for survivors, according to the UN, which announced that it will provide 10,000 body bags, although it expects the final number of victims to be lower.
The UN estimates the losses at 6.7 billion dollars (R$34.8 billion), equivalent to 6% of the country's GDP oil.
*With information from AFP

Source: G1