More stories of remarkable survival emerged in Venezuela on Sunday, several days after two powerful earthquakes devastated the country.
Interim President Delcy Rodríguez said rescue teams pulled 33 people alive from the rubble over the weekend, reports BBC.
Among them were two 11-year-old boys, who were rescued separately from collapsed buildings just hours apart on Sunday.
Despite the successful rescues, hopes of finding more survivors are fading as tens of thousands of people remain missing.
Aid agencies say the first 48 to 72 hours after a disaster are critical for locating survivors. Relatives of those still missing are now facing a fifth night waiting for news of their loved ones.
As of Sunday, at least 1,450 people had died in what Rodríguez described as the “most brutal natural catastrophe” in Venezuela’s history.
The twin earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck on Wednesday just 39 seconds apart.
The powerful tremors caused nearly 800 buildings to collapse, trapping countless people beneath the debris.
Desperate families have continued searching for loved ones, with many digging through the rubble by hand.
Some residents told the BBC they could hear voices beneath the debris but were unable to shift the heavy concrete slabs and were anxiously waiting for heavy machinery to arrive.
Although the crucial 72-hour rescue window has passed, emergency teams have not abandoned hope.
Rescuers say survivors could still be found alive, particularly if they have access to food and water.
UN Resident Co-ordinator Gianluca Rampolla told the BBC experts believe it is still possible to find survivors, but warned that “time is running short”.
Rodríguez has continued sharing hopeful updates on social media, including videos of successful rescues carried out over the weekend.
Rescuers released footage showing an 11-year-old boy, identified as Moises, being pulled from twisted wreckage with his eyes covered to shield them from the sunlight.
Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) said Moises had been trapped beneath around three metres (9.8ft) of rubble. Rescue workers spent six hours carrying out “high-precision work” on Saturday before reaching him.
Reuters reported that a rescuer was overheard on a walkie-talkie saying the boy had been found near his sister and mother, both of whom had died.
Hours later, Rodríguez posted another video on X, purportedly showing the rescue of a second 11-year-old boy in the town of Caraballeda.
“In these hours, every life is hope for Venezuela,” she wrote.
Also in Caraballeda, French and American rescue teams freed a father and his teenage son from beneath the rubble on Sunday, according to AFP.
Officials said the coastal region of La Guaira, where Caraballeda is located, has suffered the worst destruction.
A firefighter working in Caraballeda told BBC that dozens of buildings still had not been searched.
“There aren’t enough hands,” he said. “And it is very, very likely that there are still people trapped.”
In Catia La Mar, La Guaira, one of the worst-hit areas, residents continued searching collapsed multi-storey apartment buildings with their bare hands.
Wilber, a visibly exhausted resident, broke down in tears as he told the BBC he had lost eight relatives, while five of them remained trapped beneath their homes.
He said the authorities had become an obstacle rather than a source of support.
“The government decided to close the streets,” he said, adding it was “making it harder to bring help”.
“Yesterday we waited from 6am to 4pm to get a special permission to come here. We wasted hours,” he said.
Rescue operations have also been disrupted by repeated aftershocks, which continue to frighten residents.
“To be honest, it makes you feel kind of nervous. Any little noise… horrible,” 64-year-old bus driver Jesús Andueza told BBC Mundo.
Public frustration has grown, with many residents saying the government’s response has been too slow and inefficient. In some of the worst-affected communities, including Caribe and Tanaguarena, debris removal has yet to begin.
One resident told the BBC the government was hindering rescue efforts by restricting access to affected areas and closing roads.
Thousands of displaced people are now living in their cars or sheltering at locations such as the airport and a golf course, fearing more buildings could collapse.
The golf course in Caraballeda has become a central hub for emergency operations.
Its once carefully maintained lawns now serve as a makeshift hospital and donation centre, where families who lost everything sort through donated clothing and humanitarian aid supplies.
The surrounding streets of Caraballeda remain cracked and covered in rubble, with silence broken only by heavy machinery and rescue workers searching through the ruins.
Milagros González, a resident of Caribe, told BBC Mundo that her apartment building was one of the few left standing and that she fled immediately with her family to the golf course.
“I left with my two young daughters and my two elderly relatives. But thank God we got out alive. The building can’t be lived in. But we’re alive, which is what matters,” she said.
Rodríguez said the José María Vargas sports complex in La Guaira was also operating as an emergency response centre.
Highlighting the role of the armed forces in distributing clothes, medicine and food, she said “everything is functioning as well as possible during these terrible moments, these terrible hours, that our people are enduring”.
“Let them know that no one here is alone, not a single family or individual need [to] feel alone. Our people and our state are here, the social protection system is here, and international solidarity is here.”
International rescue teams from Mexico, Spain, Qatar, the United States and the United Kingdom have joined search efforts in recent days.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Saturday that 39 international search-and-rescue teams had been deployed, each comprising between 50 and 100 personnel.
“You’re looking at almost 2,000 people surging in, 111 dogs, medical teams as well. We go in with these micro drones, they call them cockroach drones, that help us find people in the buildings.”
