![\"Jesus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7-DSC01744-1783278118.jpg\")
Jesus Garcia looks at the remains of the Ritasol Palace apartment complex [Alfie Pannell]<\/p>\nAt first, Jesus did not believe it was possible, but then he heard his father shouting out from the rubble, saying: “Don’t leave me here.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Trust me: Stay calm. Keep the kids calm over there. I\u2019m not leaving here without you,'” Jesus recalled.<\/p>\n
Jose had been trapped for more than an hour by that point, unsure of his fate. He and his two younger sons had survived the collapse with relatively minor injuries, but dangers remained. The debris could still shift and crush them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I thought of was my children. I had the little one right here,\u201d Jose recalled, lifting his hands to his chest. \u201cAnd I still had the other one. He was right next to me but buried. I couldn’t see his face; I could only see one foot and one hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Jose put on a brave face for his boys. A friendly voice had pierced the rubble: Jesus’s friend, the firefighter.<\/p>\n
He had been shouting for survivors. He had also brought Jesus’s old firefighting equipment to the site.<\/p>\n
Jesus Garcia looks at the remains of the Ritasol Palace apartment complex [Alfie Pannell]<\/p>\n
After finding out his father and brothers were alive, Jesus began desperately trying to get them out. But he realised he would have to wait until the next day for the sun to come up and, crucially, to get his hands on a jackhammer that could drill through the floors of rubble separating him from his family.<\/p>\n
Finally, the next morning, a specialist squad from the police arrived with the gear they needed to carry out the rescue.<\/p>\n
With the help of his firefighting team from La Guaira, who showed up to help their old comrade, Jesus was able to pull his father and two younger brothers from the rubble at about 3:30pm on June 25, more than 20 hours after the earthquakes.<\/p>\n
He quickly swept Diego and Santiago into his arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw them, I hugged them, gave them a kiss, and said, \u2018I love you, brother,'” Jesus recalled. “Then I stepped away for a moment and started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jose is still shaken from the experience, which has changed his life forever. \u201cI am someone who will be grateful for the rest of my life that I was given this opportunity. Not just me, but my two young children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At first, Jesus did not believe it was possible, but then he heard his father shouting out from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2659,1397,242,80,8911,50,90,56,54,55,586],"class_list":["post-678025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-earthquakes","tag-environment","tag-features","tag-government","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}