Venezuelans improvise morgue in La Guaira port

Bodies found in the rubble are being taken to the port of La Guaira
Federico Parra/AFP
The port of La Guaira, the area most devastated by the earthquakes six days ago in Venezuela, has become an improvised morgue where bodies removed from the rubble of collapsed buildings are being taken.
Coroners in blue coats walked this Monday (29) among dozens of bags mortuaries stacked on the floor. Some bodies are already in wooden coffins, also on the floor. Near the white tent that concentrates the operation, there are around a hundred empty coffins on one side and rubble on the other, journalists from the AFP news agency found.
The earthquakes that hit the country on Wednesday, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 within seconds, devastated La Guaira, a coastal state neighboring Caracas, whose port is one of the most important in the country due to its proximity to the capital.
The latest official balance has counted 1,719 dead, but the number continues to rise, and coroners are overwhelmed. In the first few days, injured people and bodies were taken to hospitals in the region, but the health units' morgues quickly collapsed due to the large number of deaths.
VIDEO: drone images show the extent of the devastation in La Guaira
Long wait to identify the bodies
"My family is there, they told me that my sister and her children are there, and also the children of my brother, who survived", says Wilker Molalla, 25 years old, while waiting to be called to eventually identify the bodies. The family lived in a neighborhood close to the port. There were 11 people: only Molalla and his brother survived because they were working.
The wait at the port is long. Family members wait in line until they can enter and recognize their loved ones or receive the bodies. Many carry bouquets of colorful flowers in their hands.
They criticize the lack of personnel to respond to the emergency, a complaint that adds to many others about the management of the crisis. The search among the rubble is carried out, in most cases, without help from the authorities.
Tent was improvised for coroners in the port
Maxwell Briceno/REUTERS
"I recognized it by the ring"
Doctors and forensic technicians work outdoors with the corpses under tarpaulins supported by four rods. Some of the bodies are covered with lime, a procedure that some experts consider unnecessary.
At the port of La Guaira, death certificates and authorizations for cremation are issued. A truck identified as a Special Hospital Waste Unit also arrives at the scene to collect samples for autopsies.
"I came yesterday and I walked through everything, I walked through everything, I walked through everything and I didn't find my daughter", expresses, desolate, Antony Marcano, a 41-year-old cook. "Today I came more calmly and, thank God, I found her, I identified her," he added. "I recognized her by the ring I gave her."
Young man is rescued from rubble 106 hours after earthquake in Venezuela
UN will provide 10,000 body bags
Venezuelan authorities avoid talking about the missing, but the UN estimates that there are around 50,000. This Monday, the United Nations announced that it will provide the country with 10,000 burial bags.
Representatives of private funeral homes offer free transfer and cremation services. Hearses are parked outside the port.
Darwin Silva, 37, prepares to transport the body of his mother, who lived in a housing complex called Hugo Chávez I, part of an emblematic government program. "It has already been recognized, they have already given me the death certificate", said the shaken man, who himself took the body to the port to complete the procedures. She was found under a beam, at night, with the help of a generator provided by residents to light the place.
Built as part of efforts to modernize the country, the buildings in the housing complex now symbolize the serious situation in Venezuela.
"Most of the buildings in the back of the complex completely collapsed," said Jenny Contreras, 28 years old. Contreras, her husband and their four-year-old son have been sleeping on a mattress on the street since the tremors collapsed part of the complex in the town of Catia La Mar, near La Guaira.
The 3,400 apartments were evacuated, and Contreras says she has not even been able to return to retrieve her belongings. Large cracks spread across the buildings, revealing construction materials inside, AFP journalists reported. Some are on the verge of collapse, while others have already collapsed.
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Source: G1