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El Salvador’s president hails ‘miracle’ operation that saw 21-year-old rescued alive in La Guaira<\/p>\n
In an update to X, El Salvador\u2019s president has said that after hours of intensive work rescuers have freed Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, who was trapped under a building<\/a> in Caraballeda, La Guaira, calling the operation \u201ca miracle\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis rescue was made possible thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue teams from Venezuela<\/a>, Mexico, and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to reach Aaron,\u201d Nayib Bukele wrote in a social media post, adding that the 21-year-old is now receiving specialised medical attention.<\/p>\n Allow content provided by a third party?<\/p>\n This article includes content hosted on platform.x.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n China says it will send 100 million yuan ($14.7m; \u00a311.1m) in disaster relief aid to Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Chinese government will provide Venezuela with \u201cemergency free relief supplies… to support earthquake relief and post-disaster reconstruction\u201d, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters this morning.<\/p>\n The supplies will be delivered \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, while Beijing also provides Caracas with satellite images of affected areas to assist in rescue efforts, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n Eight Chinese nationals have been killed in the earthquakes, while one remains missing, Chinese state media reported on Monday.<\/p>\n At least 24 countries have sent 521 tons of supplies, 86 units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble and more than 2,700 search-and-rescue personnel, Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, said on Sunday.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Clavel Rangel<\/p>\n My colleague Clavel Rangel has filed this story from Caracas:<\/p>\n Displaced families from across Caracas have been arriving at Parque del Este, a beautiful 200-acre park in the city\u2019s east that was designed by the legendary Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.<\/p>\n Some of the earthquake survivors, like 49-year-old Leidy C\u00e1ceres, carry fresh memories of an older tragedy: the 1999 Vargas disaster.<\/p>\n Leidy survived the catastrophic mudslides that devastated Venezuela\u2019s Caribbean coast, and now she has once again been displaced, along with her children and grandchildren, after the twin earthquakes that struck the country on 24 June.<\/p>\n \u201cI was displaced back then, too. For me, this feels like living through the same thing all over again. I used to live in the El Lim\u00f3n neighborhood, on the road down to Vargas. We lost everything at that time. I was 10 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Leidy lives \u2013 or used to live \u2013 in the densely populated neighbourhood of Petare. She no longer knows whether her family will be able to return home.<\/p>\n The Venezuelan capital of Caracas was hit by two powerful earthquakes last Wednesday. Photograph: Jimmy Villalta\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n A neighbour donated a tent, which she has been using to spend the nights this Friday with her daughter, who is two months pregnant, and her five grandchildren.<\/p>\n She said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe left because we were afraid the aftershocks would bring our house It\u2019s ordinary people, our neighbours, who have been helping us. No one from the government has come to ask about the extent of the damage.<\/p>\n Leidy\u2019s family is among the few fortunate enough to have a tent. Most people are sleeping on bedsheets spread across the park\u2019s grass.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.18 EDT<\/p>\n In this powerful story<\/a>, my colleagues Clavel Rangel<\/a> and Tom Phillips<\/a> have some details about the anger felt by many Venezuelans at the inadequate governmental response to the earthquakes. Here is an extract:<\/p>\n double quotation markVenezuela\u2019s communications ministry has also sought to project an image of unity and diligence in the face of the tragedy, posting social media videos of government rescue teams using sledgehammers and stretchers to pluck dust-caked survivors from the rubble.<\/p>\n But on the streets, there is growing anger at what many perceive as the sluggish response of a government unprepared for a crisis of this scale, and the way many feel they were abandoned to their own fate in the hours after disaster struck.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez was heckled<\/a> by frustrated locals while touring one badly hit part of the capital. \u201cThe government isn\u2019t doing anything for the people!\u201d shouted one critic.<\/p>\n Outside the mortuary, the relentless work of volunteers offering water, coffee and trauma counselling contrasted with the lethargic official reaction, which experts blame on years of underinvestment in emergency services, as well as the sheer scale of the natural disaster.<\/p>\n Similar scenes could be seen all across the traumatised city, as tents, mattresses and food were delivered to hundreds\u200b of families sleeping out on the streets because they were too frightened to return home, many with young children. If there is one thing not lacking in Caracas, it is the food provided by volunteers.<\/p>\n The wife and two children of Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo have died after the powerful twin earthquakes struck Venezuela<\/a> last week, his team said on Sunday.<\/p>\n Trejo, who plays for Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira, a second-division team in Venezuela, had searched for his wife Yanina and children Aar\u00f3n and Ainhoa in the rubble for three days before rescue workers recovered their bodies, CNN reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cClub Sport Maritimo La Guaira deeply mourns the irreparable loss of our player\u2019s wife and children,\u201d the team said in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n Trejo, 38, was at a team training camp in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, when the earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck on Wednesday evening, according to CNN.<\/p>\n He immediately returned to his home in La Guaira where he encountered \u201ca horrific scene,\u201d Trejo\u2019s brother-in-law, Ricardo Ardiles, told CNN. \u201cHe found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n El Salvador\u2019s president, Nayib Bukele, has said rescue teams from El Savador, Venezuela<\/a> and Mexico are working to pull out Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, from a building he remains trapped under in Caraballeda, La Guaira state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have already managed to locate him, and one of our doctors has been able to administer fluids to keep him hydrated,\u201d he wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, between our rescuers and Aaron lies the body of a deceased person, which is complicating the efforts to reach him.\u201d<\/p>\n Allow content provided by a third party?<\/p>\n This article includes content hosted on platform.x.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Venezuela\u2019s coastal state of La Guaira was hardest hit by the twin earthquakes on Wednesday. Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires as recovery efforts there continue:<\/p>\n Rescuers and volunteers rest on the rubble of collapsed buildings in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, on 28 June. Photograph: Miguel Medina\/AFP\/Getty ImagesPeople affected by the earthquakes line up for food in La Guaira. Photograph: Matias Delacroix\/APSearch and rescue operations continue for survivors trapped under collapsed buildings in La Guaira. Photograph: Cem Tekkesinoglu\/Anadolu via Getty ImagesLa Guaira is a port city surrounding Venezuela\u2019s main international airport that has been shattered by the devastating earthquakes. Photograph: Jonathan Lanza\/NurPhoto\/ShutterstockFamily members search through lists of hospitals and missing persons in La Guaira following the earthquakes. Photograph: Javier Campos\/NurPhoto\/ShutterstockShare<\/a>All schools in Venezuela to remain closed this week – education ministry<\/p>\n All schools in Venezuela<\/a> will remain closed until at least 6 June due to the extensive damage caused by the earthquakes that struck last week, the country\u2019s education ministry has said.<\/p>\n The government has urged families to follow official channels to keep informed about the latest developments.<\/p>\n Schools have been shut since the two earthquakes hit within a minute of each other shortly after 6pm local time on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The education ministry subsequently said that some schools would be converted into emergency relief centres and shelters for affected families.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.50 EDT<\/p>\n There have been glimmers of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis caused by years of crippling US-led sanctions, hyperinflation, government corruption and mismanagement.<\/p>\n A man and his teenage son were found alive under the rubble in Venezuela<\/a> on Sunday, in a town about 40km north of the capital Caracas, AFP journalists reported. The discovery of survivors in Caraballeda was made by French and American rescue teams.<\/p>\n Thirty-three people were rescued from the rubble in Venezuela<\/a> on Saturday, the country\u2019s president said.<\/p>\n The US state department hailed the rescue of an infant by American rescue crews over the weekend, posting a video<\/a> to X showing rescuers removing the wailing child from the rubble.<\/p>\n A Colombian rescue team saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been \u200btrapped about 3 metres (10 feet) deep in rubble, after identifying \u200bhis location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported. He \u2060was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm. His mother and sister were killed.<\/p>\n On Friday, after 32 hours stuck under debris, a mother and her 18-day-old baby were rescued alive, as you can see below:<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.51 EDT<\/p>\n Rescuers in ‘critical hours’ to find survivors as death toll reaches 1,450<\/p>\n The president of Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly has warned time is running out to rescue survivors trapped under the rubble.<\/p>\n The death toll from the earthquakes has risen to at least 1,450 people, with 3,150 injured and 12,721 others displaced, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez said yesterday in a televised address.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, to their residences can stay,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n Search and rescue operations continue for survivors trapped under collapsed buildings in the coastal state of La Guaira on 28 June, 2026. Photograph: Cem Tekkesinoglu\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n More search and rescue teams are arriving in Venezuela five days after the powerful 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes<\/a> struck within a minute of each other on Wednesday evening, flattening buildings in the north of the country.<\/p>\n The second quake was one of the strongest tremors to hit Venezuela in a century. At least 68,900 people have been reported unaccounted for by their families.<\/p>\n Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters define the narrow window for rescuing the living. After that the search usually becomes one of recovering bodies.<\/p>\n
down. No one here has told us when we might be able to return. In
fact, nobody has given us any information.<\/p>\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782738548_824_5900.jpg\")
Aerial footage shows scale of destruction after deadly earthquakes in Venezuela \u2013 videoShare<\/a>Argentine footballer’s family killed in Venezuela earthquakes, team confirms<\/p>\n![\"Mother](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782738549_624_1920.jpg\")
Mother and baby rescued from rubble 32 hours after Venezuela earthquakes \u2013 videoShare<\/a><\/p>\n