Months after Venezuela’s earthquakes, families cling to hope in search of loved ones

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The deafening roar of excavators echoes through the rubble, drowning out all other sounds. The midday heat is stifling, even more so for Eilyn Solano, who has been sheltering in a tent for over 100 days. But she endures the discomfort in the hopes of finding her youngest son, 11-year-old Jhoniel José Morales, who disappeared after the collapse of OPP 26, one of the Venezuelan government’s social housing projects, following the twin earthquakes that devastated the country on June 24.

Eilyn hasn’t left the site for a single day. She eats and sleeps in the small tent set up just meters from where the slabs fell. From there, she has meticulously monitored the count of bodies recovered from the towers, convinced that Jhoniel is still there.

On August 24, two months after the earthquakes, officials released their final death toll: 6,509. But the government still hasn’t published an official tally of missing persons, nor has it responded to CNN’s inquiries on the matter, so residents are keeping their own counts.

According to Eilyn, search efforts have continued thanks to the solidarity of the community and the logistical support of affected families, who have provided water, ice, and electrolytes to search teams.

So far, the Solano family has managed to recover the remains of more than 17 people, but there’s still no trace of Jhoniel.

His family believes he had gone to play at a nearby sports field, where one of the towers collapsed.

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Video from a security camera showed him descending the apartment’s stairs on June 24 at 3:59 p.m., a couple of hours before the earthquakes. One of his sisters, María Yailén, 15, survived the tremors, but the other, Mariangel, 12, did not. Her body was found on the third floor, outside the apartment of her grandmother, who was looking after her that day. The grandmother was rescued alive hours later.

On September 26, search teams excavated the area around the sports field, but did not find the boy.

“Not on the field side, not at the entrance, and certainly not in the hallways,” Eilyn’s sister Chiquinquirá said. What they did find was the security camera control room and, inside, a disc with a second video in which the family claims the boy can be seen leaving the building just minutes before the earthquake.

Once they confirmed that the boy had left the building, they began to search in streets, collection centers and cemeteries such as “La Esperanza” in Catia la Mar, where there is an area designated for unidentified burials.

“Among all the possibilities there is a glimmer of hope, and that is why we continue the search until the end, until we obtain some kind of answer about the whereabouts of the child,” Chiquinquirá added.

The Solanos, who survived the deadly Vargas mudslide in 1999, say they won’t give up until they find their boy. With the support of relatives, friends and volunteers, they have organized a search network, traveling by motorcycle to medical centers, morgues and shelters between La Guaira and Caracas.

They’re also calling on authorities and the community to continue sharing Jhoniel’s image and to provide any information that could help locate him.

In parts of La Guaira, where dozens of buildings collapsed, only emptiness and silence remain. But in some areas, there is a larger military presence working to clear rubble — a stark contrast to the initial hours of the tragedy, when families claimed that there were no officials present. The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, however, has defended the response of rescue teams.

At the Residencias Caribe housing complex, families, firefighters and volunteers have set up a bulletin board to keep track of who likely remains under the concrete.

Nayibe Geromes searches for her mother Leida Mata, with whom she last spoke roughly six hours before the quakes. With the two basements flooded with seawater and the internal structure destroyed, Nayibe faces a harsh reality: “At this point, I don’t expect to find a complete body, but rather skeletal remains.” Nevertheless, she says that “until there is a body, there is no death.”

Beside her, Angie Valentina Sojo Andarcia, is searching for her husband. When the earthquake struck, Angie was in Caracas at a doctor’s appointment with her daughter while talking on the phone with her 50-year-old husband. During the call, she heard glass breaking before the line went dead.

Recently, she managed to get a volunteer foundation to clear away debris, reaching the area where her kitchen once stood. She also arranged for her husband’s brother to be brought from Táchira state for DNA testing at a morgue, to identify any potential remains — but so far, they haven’t had any luck.

Angie says she is unaware of any official channels for filing reports regarding missing persons.

Ronnie Boquier, a legal coordinator of the non-governmental human rights organization Cofavic, said the situation in La Guaira state has been marked by “information opacity, violation of victims’ rights and serious failures in the execution of international protocols for identification and handling of corpses.”

In response to a CNN inquiry, the Ombudsman’s Office said they maintain open channels to receive reports of missing persons with the aim of identifying rights violations and providing guidance and legal support to families.

They said they have telephone and in-person support lines; are deployed on the ground; and are in contact with victims and their relatives. They said they have received and processed more than 100 complaints or requests for guidance regarding alleged rights violations, and they maintain communication with search and rescue authorities and other officials to monitor these cases.

They claim reports of missing children and young people have been fully processed and investigations concluded with the discovery of their bodies under the rubble.

CNN has contacted the Attorney General’s Office; the Ministry of Popular Power for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace; the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences; and the Scientific Criminal and Forensic Investigations Corps for more information about their protocols and response to complaints.

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Cofavic has reviewed several complaints from families, and says that in at least five cases it detected critical failures in the chain of custody at the La Guaira silos, where a makeshift morgue is operating. It says families had to review between 400 and 600 digital photographs of corpses in advanced states of decomposition, without any technical or psychological support. Upon inspecting corresponding body bags, the remains in these cases did not match those of their loved ones, according to the complaints. This has sparked fears that some bodies may have been mistakenly given to the wrong families.

“The state has the means, or should have the means, and if it doesn’t, it has to do everything possible to find the resources, international aid, everything that is technically necessary to be able to provide a response,” Boquier said.

He explained that while official tallies ended on August 24, independent and international estimates put the death toll at 10,000 to 20,000.

胡安·巴雷托/法新社/盖蒂图片社

挖掘机的震耳欲聋的轰鸣声在废墟中回荡，淹没了所有其他声音。正午的酷热令人窒息，对于已经在帐篷里避难超过100天的艾琳·索拉诺来说更是如此。但她忍受着这一切，只为找到她11岁的小儿子约翰尼尔·何塞·莫拉莱斯。6月24日，委内瑞拉发生毁灭性的双震，导致政府的社会住房项目之一——OPP 26号楼倒塌，约翰尼尔也随之失踪。

艾琳一天也没有离开过现场。她吃住都在离坍塌石板仅几米远的小帐篷里。她从那里一丝不苟地统计着从塔楼里找到的尸体数量，坚信约翰尼尔还在那里。

地震发生两个月后的8月24日，官方公布了最终死亡人数：6509人。但政府至今仍未公布失踪人员的官方统计数据，也没有回应CNN就此事的询问，因此居民们只能自行统计。

据艾琳称，由于社区的团结和受灾家庭的后勤支持，搜救工作得以继续进行，这些家庭为搜救队提供了水、冰和电解质。

到目前为止，索拉诺家族已经找到了 17 具以上的遗骸，但仍然没有找到约翰尼尔的踪迹。

他的家人认为他当时是去附近的运动场玩耍，其中一座塔楼在那里倒塌了。

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监控录像显示，6月24日下午3点59分，也就是地震发生前几个小时，他走下了公寓的楼梯。他的一个妹妹，15岁的玛丽亚·亚伊伦，在地震中幸存了下来，但另一个妹妹，12岁的玛丽安赫尔却不幸遇难。她的遗体在三楼被发现，就在她祖母的公寓外，那天祖母正在照顾她。几个小时后，祖母被成功救出。

9月26日，搜救队挖掘了运动场周围的区域，但没有找到这名男孩。

“球场边没有，入口处没有，走廊里当然也没有，”艾琳的姐姐奇金基拉说道。他们找到的是监控录像控制室，里面有一张光盘，光盘里有第二段视频，家人称视频中可以看到男孩在地震发生前几分钟离开了大楼。

确认男孩已离开建筑物后，他们开始在街道、收集中心和墓地进行搜寻，例如卡蒂亚拉马尔的“拉埃斯佩兰萨”墓地，那里有一个专门用于安葬身份不明者的墓地。

“在所有可能性中，还有一线希望，这就是为什么我们会继续寻找到底，直到找到关于孩子下落的答案，”奇金基拉补充道。

索拉诺一家在1999年瓦尔加斯泥石流灾害中幸存下来，他们表示，在找到儿子之前绝不放弃。在亲友和志愿者的帮助下，他们组织了一支搜救队，骑着摩托车奔波于拉瓜伊拉和加拉加斯之间的医疗中心、太平间和避难所之间。

他们还呼吁当局和社区继续传播约翰尼尔的照片，并提供任何有助于找到他的信息。

在拉瓜伊拉的部分地区，数十栋建筑倒塌，如今只剩下空荡荡的废墟和寂静。但在一些地区，却有大量军方人员正在清理瓦砾——这与灾难发生之初的情况形成了鲜明对比，当时遇难者家属声称现场没有任何官员。然而，代理总统德尔西·罗德里格斯领导的政府却为救援队的应对措施辩护。

在 Residencias Caribe 住宅区，家属、消防员和志愿者们设立了一个公告板，用来记录可能仍被埋在混凝土下的人员。

纳伊贝·杰罗姆斯正在寻找她的母亲莱达·马塔，她们最后一次通话大约是在地震发生前六个小时。由于两间地下室都被海水淹没，房屋内部结构损毁严重，纳伊贝不得不面对残酷的现实：“现在，我估计找不到完整的遗体，可能只剩下一些骨骼。”尽管如此，她仍然说：“只要没有找到遗体，就不能断定死亡。”

在她身旁，安吉·瓦伦蒂娜·索霍·安达西亚正在寻找她的丈夫。地震发生时，安吉正在加拉加斯陪女儿去看医生，同时和她50岁的丈夫通电话。通话过程中，她听到玻璃破碎的声音，然后电话就断了。

最近，她设法联系到一个志愿者基金会，清理了废墟，清理到了她家厨房原址所在的区域。她还安排将丈夫的兄弟从塔奇拉州送来，在停尸房进行DNA检测，以辨认任何可能的遗骸——但到目前为止，他们还没有找到任何线索。

安吉说她不知道有任何官方渠道可以报案有关失踪人员的信息。

非政府人权组织 Cofavic 的法律协调员 Ronnie Boquier 表示，拉瓜伊拉州的情况“存在信息不透明、侵犯受害者权利以及在执行识别和处理尸体的国际协议方面存在严重失误”等问题。

针对 CNN 的询问，监察员办公室表示，他们保持开放渠道接收失踪人员报告，目的是查明侵犯人权的行为，并为家属提供指导和法律支持。

他们表示，他们设有电话和现场支持热线；已在现场部署人员；并与受害者及其家属保持联系。他们表示，已收到并处理了100多起关于涉嫌侵犯人权的投诉或指导请求，并与搜救部门和其他官员保持沟通，以监督这些案件的进展。

他们声称，有关失踪儿童和青少年的报告已得到全面处理，调查已结束，并在废墟下发现了他们的尸体。

CNN已联系总检察长办公室、人民权力内政、司法与和平部、国家医学和法医科学服务部以及科学刑事和法医调查队，以获取有关其规程和对投诉的回应的更多信息。

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委内瑞拉地震后，数百只宠物获救。现在，它们正在寻找自己的家人。

西班牙国家殡葬协会（Cofavic）审查了多起家属投诉，并表示至少有五起案件中，位于拉瓜伊拉（La Guaira）的临时停尸房（一个筒仓）的遗体保管链存在严重缺陷。该协会称，家属们不得不查看400至600张高度腐烂尸体的数码照片，却得不到任何技术或心理支持。投诉称，家属们在检查相应的尸袋后发现，这些案件中的遗体与他们亲人的遗体并不相符。这引发了人们的担忧，即一些遗体可能被错误地交给了其他家属。

博基尔说：“国家有办法，或者应该有办法，如果没有，就必须尽一切可能寻找资源、国际援助以及所有技术上必要的资源，以便能够做出回应。”

他解释说，虽然官方统计截止于 8 月 24 日，但独立和国际估计死亡人数为 10,000 至 20,000 人。