“The Venezuelan does not give up”: testimonies of fear and resilience after devastating earthquakes

“There are older adults who are practically homeless because they cannot go up to their buildings. They have to spend the night out here and security in the country is shaky,” Álvarez, territorial coordinator of older adults in Chacao, in the Miranda governorate, tells El Comercio.

Several of those who dare to return to their homes sleep with the doors open. The gates do not close either, so you have to be alert. The uncertainty is greater in the northern La Guaira (close to Caracas), the most affected by the earthquakes, but fear is also palpable in the capital and surrounding areas.

In the midst of fear and sadness, the priority in these first days is to search for survivors and care for the injured. The effort to support neighbors is also visible. “Thank God, the Venezuelan people are very supportive and there has been no lack of food for the victims or those who are putting their face forward to recover all the bodies and those lives that nature unfortunately took from us. But we continue forward, the Venezuelans do not give up,” says Álvarez.

Andrés Simón González, executive president of Venemergencia, works with his team from the first moment. The efforts were channeled with the implementation of the expansion of the telemedicine system to make it public and free for all people. Through a telephone number, any Venezuelan can speak with a doctor immediately to see if it is necessary for them to go to an assistance center or not. “We can solve more than 30% of cases this way and we help prevent healthcare centers from collapsing,” he tells us.

Those who are helping those rescued highlight the importance of donations, especially medical supplies. Hospitals are facing a great level of pressure, while hundreds of deaths from the earthquakes are still expected to recover.

Several of the residents, authorities and first responders who have volunteered in the emergency do not want to give their names, but they recount the dangers involved in removing debris in the middle of a scene of destruction that no one imagined.

“The biggest concern we have now is the deficiencies of the infrastructure. The situation is being evaluated to see which buildings are resistant, which suffered cracks and which completely collapsed,” comments a police officer in Chacao, who highlights that the municipal police, civil protection and firefighters have been deployed in all the affected places.

Venezuelans are counting the seconds for the arrival of aid from international countries, which, they hope, will be sustainable over time. “Everything counts to be able to attend to those people who are still missing, but who are alive, because I understand that there are some collapsed structures where there are people whose voices can be heard asking for help,” said the police officer with whom we spoke.

While the anxiety and demand for official information grows. Some authorities have approached the collapsed areas and have told residents that they will be relocated to hotels until a solution is found.

“They came from the mayor’s office to the square and took a census of the people who cannot enter their homes due to the damage. They said that they were going to come to evaluate the apartments to see if they are habitable or not, or if we have to go to the hotels that they will assign to us. But they did not say when it would be, nor under what conditions, nor at what time,” says Venezuelan Maribel Herrera.

In Peru, where one of the largest Venezuelan communities in the region resides, aid is already being collected. Darwin Izaguirre, coordinator of the Con Vzla Command in Peru, explains that various organizations have begun collecting food and medicine. Tomorrow will be one of the collection days.

“For those of us who are far away, the main anguish is that the uncertainty of what is happening within Venezuela persists. There is no exact data. There are 50,000 missing. Many friends have learned from a distance of the death of their loved ones and others are still waiting to receive news,” he points out.

Izaguirre says that the objective is for the aid to reach Venezuela through the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, which is why they maintain contact with authorities and political leaders in the country.

Carolina Guzmán Duclós, also based in Lima, points out that it is very difficult to deal with the helplessness of not being able to do anything in person. “It’s quite difficult when you’re far away, you want to do several things and you can’t. People need medicine, water, tents, we can only collaborate by sending that. Many of us would like to cross our cell phone screens and help remove the debris, but we can’t.”