'They're working with their nails': Caracas resident reports lack of structure in rescues after earthquake

Earthquake in Venezuela is felt in Roraima
Venezuelan lawyer Ricardo Alurralde, 38, stated that authorities have been facing structural difficulties in dealing with the earthquakes that hit the country last Wednesday night (24). In an interview with g1, he said that firefighters, Civil Defense agents and police officers have been working with very limited resources.
"In Venezuela we usually say that they are working with their fingernails", he says. "It's when people do what they can with as little structure as possible."
▶ Context: Two tremors of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 were recorded on Wednesday night at an interval of less than a minute. Until the last update of this report, authorities confirmed 235 deaths and 1,520 injuries.
Alurralde lives in the east zone of Caracas and closely followed the moments following the tremor. He says he saw firefighters using their cell phone flashlights to illuminate search areas and manually removing rubble. "The stones and debris were carried by hand", he reports.
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In his opinion, the absence of heavy machinery has compromised the response to the tragedy. "At least in Caracas, I have not yet seen equipment of this type being used to remove the rubble. There is a huge lack of structure", he says.
The scenario, according to the lawyer, is even more delicate in La Guaira, the state that concentrates much of the destruction. "There are reports of residents trying to extract neighbors from the rubble on their own, even before rescue teams arrived."
At the time of the tremor
Despite the scare, Alurralde's family was not injured. The apartment where he lives had only small cracks in the walls and some broken glass.
The lawyer says he was preparing a barbecue with his wife and daughter when the woman's cell phone, an Android device, received an alert about the possibility of an earthquake. About 40 seconds later, the tremor began.
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"I held my daughter in my arms and we managed to take shelter under the structural arch of the apartment. The building in front was shaking completely and people were screaming. I thought the building was going to collapse."
After the main shock, the morning was marked by a sequence of aftershocks. Alurralde estimates that he felt between five and six new tremors in his region. Family members who live in Altamira, a neighborhood located on a geological fault, reported 20 to 25 aftershocks throughout the night.
According to the lawyer, the government declared a state of emergency and made an official statement, but the perception among many residents is that the response capacity has been limited given the scale of the damage.
People search for victims amid the rubble of collapsed buildings after the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, in June 25, 2026
REUTERS/Gaby Oraa

Source: G1