Rescue teams in Venezuela are racing against time to save people left under rubble after the devastating earthquake that hit the country last Wednesday (24). This Saturday (27), an 11-year-old child and an 80-year-old woman were taken out alive.
Shortly after midnight this Sunday (28), the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, reported that a child had been rescued in the city of Caraballeda, in the state of La Guaira, the area most affected by the two earthquakes that hit the country. The action was supported by the Mexican Army.
The elderly woman, in turn, was rescued by a group of firefighters and international rescuers in Playa Grande after more than 60 hours under the rubble. The operation was supported by teams from Ecuador and El Salvador.
Images released by Telesur on the social network
Critical situation
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, reported that seismic activity remains intense. Since the two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, 432 aftershocks have been recorded, highlighting, according to him, the large amount of energy released by the movement of tectonic plates.
To date, authorities have confirmed 1,430 deaths, 3,238 injuries and approximately 4,000 people affected. Material damage covers civil and government infrastructure, with losses exceeding 300 buildings destroyed.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), an agency of the United Nations (UN), estimates that up to 6.76 million people may have been affected by the earthquakes. The projection includes around 2 million residents of Caracas and considers population analyzes and damage caused by the tremors.
UN humanitarian aid chief Tom Fletcher told AFP in Geneva that the whereabouts of more than 50 thousand people are unknown. “This is an extremely complex rescue operation,” he told the international agency. An unofficial list of missing people circulating on social media includes the names of more than 52,000 people.
*With information from Telesur and AFP
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
