Searching for closure: Venezuela families refuse to give up after quakes

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports from La Guaira, Venezuela, that families are still searching through earthquake debris nearly three weeks after twin quakes struck on June 24, with magnitudes reported at 7.2 and 7.5. The report focuses on Ivan Chino, who returns daily to the remains of his neighbourhood to look for seven relatives believed to be buried after their apartment building collapsed. His wife and children survived, but his parents, grandson, nieces and other family members remain missing.

According to Al Jazeera, the confirmed death toll has passed 5,000, while many families continue to seek information about people who disappeared under collapsed buildings. The search in La Guaira has shifted from the urgent rescue phase to recovery, identification and debris clearance. Relatives and volunteers are using basic tools in some areas, while excavators remove heavy rubble from destroyed residential blocks.

A search coordinator in La Guaira, Dani Herrera, told Al Jazeera that teams had rescued about 280 people alive and recovered nearly 477 bodies, and that recovery work was continuing. Families are also filing missing-person reports and providing photographs and personal details at temporary offices set up by authorities, where officials are checking records and working to identify remains.

The report highlights the emotional toll on residents who cannot hold funerals or begin mourning without confirmation of their relatives’ fate. It also notes concerns among families that a shortage of specialised heavy equipment is slowing efforts to reach victims beneath large concrete slabs. For many in La Guaira, the priority is no longer survival but certainty, identification and the chance to bury loved ones with dignity.