He deserves to live and have a future
On a Wednesday evening in late June, two powerful earthquakes—measuring 7.2 and 7.5—tore through Venezuela, collapsing buildings and erasing entire neighborhoods in moments. Among the more than 1,700 confirmed dead and 51,000 still missing are the wife and two young children of Argentine soccer player Lucas Trejo, who spent three days searching the rubble of his home in La Guaira before finding them. The disaster lays bare both the fragility of ordinary life and the uneven capacity of nations to protect and recover their people, as international rescue teams move in where the state has struggled to reach.
- Two earthquakes struck Venezuela within hours of each other, reducing entire city blocks to rubble and triggering one of the deadliest disasters in the country's recent history.
- With over 51,000 people still unaccounted for and residents in the hardest-hit areas reporting almost no state rescue presence, the gap between the scale of the catastrophe and the official response has become a crisis of its own.
- International teams—including U.S. urban search-and-rescue units—have stepped in, pulling survivors from the wreckage in scenes that offer fleeting moments of hope against an overwhelming tide of loss.
- Lucas Trejo's three-day search through the ruins of his home, ending with the recovery of his wife Yanina and children Aaron and Ainhoa, has become a human face on a tragedy still too vast to fully comprehend.
- Families across Venezuela refuse to stop searching, driven by the stubborn belief that someone beneath the concrete might still be alive—even as the death toll continues to rise and the humanitarian emergency deepens.
Lucas Trejo was at a training camp in Caracas when two earthquakes—7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude—struck Venezuela on a Wednesday evening in late June. He left immediately for La Guaira, where his family lived. What he found was a collapsed building and, after three days of searching through the wreckage, the bodies of his wife Yanina, his son Aaron, and his daughter Ainhoa. His club, Sport Maritimo La Guaira, released a statement mourning the loss and posting a family photograph alongside their condolences.
Trejo's grief was one thread in a catastrophe of enormous scale. By Monday, Venezuelan authorities confirmed more than 1,700 deaths and approximately 51,000 people still missing. In the hardest-hit areas, residents reported seeing little sign of state rescue operations, even as the government claimed a full response was underway. Officials announced that around 200 people had been rescued by Saturday—a figure that felt painfully small against the magnitude of the disaster.
International teams moved in to help. The Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force shared footage of pulling a woman from rubble as neighbors cheered, and a U.S. State Department video showed rescuers extracting a nine-month-old infant, its cries audible as it was carried to safety. These moments of survival offered brief relief in an otherwise devastating landscape.
For many, the search continued without resolution. Diana Sandrano, a woman in La Guaira, told CBS News she would keep looking for her missing brother for as long as it took. 'He deserves to live and have a future,' she said after a day spent sifting through debris. Her words captured the determination holding Venezuela together in the aftermath—a refusal to stop looking, even as the country faces the longer emergency of caring for the displaced and the grieving.
Lucas Trejo was at a training camp in Caracas when the ground began to move. Two earthquakes—one measuring 7.2, another 7.5—struck Venezuela on a Wednesday evening in late June, and the Argentine soccer player, who plays for Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira in the country's second division, immediately left to find his family. What he found when he reached his home in La Guaira was devastation. His wife Yanina, his son Aaron, and his daughter Ainhoa were buried in the rubble of their collapsed building.
For three days, Trejo searched through the wreckage. His brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles later described the scene as horrific—the building itself had been reduced to nothing. When rescue workers finally recovered the bodies of his wife and two children, the loss became irreversible. On Sunday, Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira released a statement mourning what they called the irreparable loss, posting a family photograph alongside their condolences. "Peace to their souls and comfort for Lucas and all his loved ones," the team wrote.
Trejo's tragedy was one among thousands. By Monday, Venezuelan authorities reported that more than 1,700 people had been killed across the country, with tens of thousands more still unaccounted for. The official missing count stood at approximately 51,000 people. The earthquakes had torn through entire neighborhoods, collapsing buildings and trapping families beneath concrete and steel. In the hardest-hit areas, residents reported seeing few state rescue teams, though the Venezuelan government claimed to be mounting a full response. By Saturday, officials said about 200 people had been rescued—a number that seemed impossibly small against the scale of the disaster.
International rescue teams moved in to fill the gap. The Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 shared video of its members pulling a woman from a collapsed building while neighbors cheered from the street. Another video, released by the U.S. State Department, showed a nine-month-old baby being extracted from the rubble wrapped in blue fabric, the infant's cries audible as rescuers carried it to safety. These moments of survival offered brief relief in an otherwise grim landscape.
But for many families, the search continued without resolution. Diana Sandrano, a woman in La Guaira, told CBS News that she would keep looking for her missing brother for as long as it took. "He deserves to live and have a future," she said after a day spent sifting through debris. Her words captured the determination and desperation that had taken hold across Venezuela—the refusal to accept loss, the stubborn belief that someone might still be found alive beneath the rubble. As rescue operations pressed forward and the death toll climbed, the country faced not only the immediate crisis of finding survivors but the longer humanitarian emergency of caring for the displaced and grieving.
Citas Notables
He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been— Ricardo Ardiles, Trejo's brother-in-law, describing the collapsed home
He deserves to live and have a future— Diana Sandrano, searching for her missing brother
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
What was Trejo doing when the earthquakes hit?
He was at a team training camp in Caracas, away from his family. He left immediately and drove to La Guaira, where his home was. That's when he saw what had happened.
And he searched for three days before they were found?
Yes. Three days in the rubble looking for his wife and two children. His brother-in-law said the building was just gone—there was nothing left of it.
How many people died overall?
More than 1,700 officially, but the real number is harder to pin down. About 51,000 people are still missing. The earthquakes were massive—7.2 and 7.5 magnitude.
Were rescue teams there quickly?
Not really. People in the worst areas said they saw very few state rescue teams. International teams came in, and there were some rescues—a mother and baby pulled from the rubble—but it wasn't enough.
What does a family do when someone is still missing?
They keep searching. A woman named Diana Sandrano told reporters she'd search for her brother as long as it took. That's the reality for thousands of people right now.