Hundreds of rescuers were working late on Wednesday to save a 43-year-old Venezuelan man who has survived for a week under the ruins of a seven-story building, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Hernan Gil, a 43-year-old security guard, is trapped inside his booth under the building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a coastal area almost entirely razed to the ground in the June 24 twin earthquakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5.
Rescue teams from seven countries — Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico — have been working around-the-clock over the past three days to reach him.
A person searches for a deceased relative among the debris of a collapsed building in the Los Corales neighbourhood of Caraballeda, La Guaira State, Venezuela on July 1, 2026, following the June 24 twin earthquakes. — AFP
By late Wednesday, they were almost one meter from his position, rescuers told AFP.
