Rescue operation continues to save Venezuelan trapped under rubble one week after quakes

Hundreds of rescuers were working late on Wednesday to save a 43-year-old Venezuelan man who has survived for a week under the ruins of a seven-story building, an AFP reporter witnessed. Hernan Gil, a 43-year-old security guard, is trapped inside his booth under the building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a coastal area almost entirely razed to the ground in the June 24 twin earthquakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5. Rescue teams from seven countries — Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico — have been working around-the-clock over the past three days to reach him. A person searches for a deceased relative among the debris of a collapsed building in the Los Corales neighbourhood of Caraballeda, La Guaira State, Venezuela on July 1, 2026, following the June 24 twin earthquakes. — AFP By late Wednesday, they were almost one meter from his position, rescuers told AFP. Chile’s fire service published an Instagram video of Gil inside his chamber, moving his head to look at the camera. He was wearing a face mask, and his right eye was bloodshot. “This is truly a miracle,” Gil’s wife Gusbimar Gonzalez told AFP. “I’m completely amazed because it’s the first time I’ve seen so many countries come together like this to save a single person,” she said. News of the rescue bid came at the end of a day in which hope of finding more survivors had faded, seven days after the catastrophic earthquakes, which killed almost 2,300 people and have left thousands more unaccounted for. View of a damaged building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela, on July 1, 2026, following the June 24 twin earthquakes. — AFP As firefighters drew near him, others were monitoring the movements of a neighbouring building, which is in danger of collapsing. Working since Monday, the rescuers shored up the building’s foundations with wood and iron to prevent the listing structure from collapsing further. Throughout the operation, they gave Gil water to keep him hydra