His family trapped in Venezuelan quakes, he turned to social media for help

7 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Despondent that rescuers had not arrived to search for his family — buried in the rubble after last week’s twin quakes — Rubén Darío Sillie turned to social media. “We are alone, men by ourselves picking up stones, beams, totally alone,” Sillie recounted on Instagram. He broke into tears as he stood in front of the collapsed, eight-story building, La Orca, where he resided with his wife and two daughters, in the Las Playas neighborhood of the quake-decimated city of La Guaira fronting the Caribbean. “We need tractors, rescue workers, on Bella Vista Street,” pleaded Sillie, 44, a business consultant. “Please. We need help.” His lament mirrored the anguish of legions of Venezuelans who endured harrowing days clearing rubble by hand before crews with heavy equipment and rescue dogs belatedly arrived. By then, it was too late for many entombed in the detritus. As of Tuesday, the official death toll from the two quakes — the deadliest in more than two centuries to hit the South American nation— approached 2,000. The number of injured exceeded 10,000. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, remained missing. Survivors of a recent pair of earthquakes searching for clothes in a parking lot in Catia La Mar, Venezuela. (Carlos Becerra/For The Times) The U.S.-backed interim government of President Delcy Rodríguez has come under withering criticism for its failure to respond more decisively. A massive military and security apparatus dedicated for more than a quarter-century to propping up the the ruling socialist government, critics say, has botched an essential mission of humanitarian relief — and even hindered volunteer rescue efforts. It wasn’t until foreign relief teams began deploying en masse on Friday and Saturday — well after the dual temblors struck on Wednesday evening — that systemic searches began in quake-battered areas like La Guaira, ground zero of the catastrophe. Early Wednesday evening, Sillie was at home in his second-floor apartment planning to watch the World Cup match between Brazil and Scotland. With him were his father, wife and 15-year-old daughter, Camila. The couple’s youngest, Dariana, 10, was upstairs in the top-floor apartment where Sillie’s sister and her husband lived. At about kickoff time, Sillie said, his cell-phone texted a seismic alert. The family scrambled beneath a door frame, a time-worn strategy based on the belief, often mistaken, that doorways offer protection. “That’s when the building came down like a stack of dominos,” Sillie recalled. “I was knocked out.” He awoke to the piercing screams of his daughter. Embracing him was his wife. She was unconscious, with severe trauma to her head. Alejandro Palomino, center, with the Los Angeles County Fire Department checks his radio during a search- and-rescue mission in Catia La Mar. (Carlos Becerra/For The Times) World & Nation More than 100 people deported from the U.S. were staying at a shelter in Venezuela that collapsed during two deadly earthquakes. Blood dripped from his head; his father and daughter had various injuries. Albeit in shock, all were conscious. The three reached an excruciating decision: They had to make their way outside and seek help before additional debris crushed them or cut off any escape. “We had no choice but to leave my wife behind,” he said. The three, adrenaline pumping, clambered through the pancaked wreckage. They made it to a nearby clinic, San Antonio de Catia al Mar, where the besieged staff was implementing emergency triage, prioritizing those with life-threatening conditions. The three were treated and released. “They sewed up my wounds and in the early morning I went back to our building,” Sillie said. His wife, sister, brother-in-law and youngest daughter were somewhere in the rubble pile — one of the many heaps of concrete, re-bar, plaster and other debris that were all that that remained of scores of buildings throughout La Guaira, a city of 25,000. But there were no police. No firefighters. No army. Just civilian volunteers burrowing through the jagged piles. “Since there was no help, it occurred to me to make a video with a telephone that someone lent me,” he said. For years, engineers worried about how collapse-prone Venezuela’s buildings could be in an earthquake. The big problem, they warned, was the prevalence of tall concrete buildings atop soft soils — the kind that amplify shaking when an earthquake strikes. The video was a social-media hit, encapsulating the prevalent mood of indignation about official non-action. In Sillie’s view, the on-line post motivated Venezuelan soldiers and police to respond to his home. Th

His family trapped in Venezuelan quakes, he turned to social media for help

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His family trapped in Venezuelan quakes, he turned to social media for help

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