Efrain OteroJune 29, 2026 — 3:52pmLa Guaira: A father and his son were pulled out alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday, four days after the devastating magnitude-7 earthquakes that struck Venezuela.It was a scene that gave hope to the French and US rescue workers active in the area, who are racing against the clock to find more survivors.American rescue workers pull a boy from the rubble in La Guaira four days after the devastating earthquakes.AP Photo/Matias DelacroixRescue workers carried the pair, visibly weakened and both wearing masks, on improvised fabric stretchers through debris-strewn streets to a waiting ambulance as a crowd gathered around the emergency vehicles in La Guaira in northern Venezuela.Rescue workers search through rubble from a partially collapsed building in La Guaira. AP Photo/Matias DelacroixThe coastal state was the hardest-hit by the earthquakes on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) that left at least 1450 dead and thousands missing.Rescuers continue to search for victims and work at a collapsed building in Carabellada days after twin magnitude-7 quakes struck Venezuela.Getty ImagesTheir rescue came after 12 hours of painstaking efforts by teams that combed through the ruins using specialised search cameras, carefully working through unstable rubble to reach the trapped victims.Rescuers find another person in the ruins of Caraballeda.Miguel Medina/Pool AFP via AP“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which is moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security.The rescue team in that area includes members of the French Civil Security and American responders from the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team in Virginia, who, the previous day, rescued a mother and her nine-month-old baby.Mexican Army teams search a building for survivors in La Guaira.AP Photo/Matias DelacroixBefore extracting the family members, rescuers prepared intravenous drips and cleared debris. Others remained beside the rubble searching for signs of life and communicating with theircolleagues among the remains.At least 33 people were rescued over the weekend, though tens of thousands remain missing, heightening fears that time is running out to find survivors.Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Monday announced that a large part of La Guaira state had been reconnected to the national electricity grid.On Sunday, Jorge Rodriguez, the acting president’s brother and president of the National Assembly, said the death toll rose by 20 people to reach 1450. He added that 3150 people remained injured, 12,721 had been displaced, and 774 buildings had collapsed.Thousands have been displaced by the quakes, which were the strongest to hit Venezuela in a century.Getty ImagesAccording to specialists, after 72 hours following an earthquake the odds of finding victims alive beneath the rubble drop dramatically.The US State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by American rescue crews on Saturday, posting a video on X showing helmet-clad rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.A Colombian rescue team also saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped some three metres deep in rubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.Rescue teams working amid devastation in Caraballeda on Sunday. Miguel Medina/Pool AFP via APHe was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered by cloth to protect them from the shock of daylight. His mother and sister were killed.Mexican rescuers working at a collapsed building in the town of Caraballeda rescued another 11-year-old boy, Rodriguez posted on X late on Saturday, showing crews carrying a small figure on a stretcher out of the rubble.Meanwhile, a power outage on Sunday forced the shutdown of Venezuela’s largest oil refinery, the 645,000-barrel-per-day Amuay, though electricity was later restored, workers from that facility and residents said.Amuay, which is part of the 955,000-bpd Paraguana Refining Centre, was the second refinery without electricity following two deadly earthquakes in the country.The South American nation has been struggling to provide power to industrial plants, refineries, businesses and citizens following the quakes.Amuay, a key fuel hub for domestic distribution, was processing about 137,000 bpd of crude before the quakes.From our partners