A quest for closure: In search of the missing after Venezuela’s earthquakes

play Live Sign upShow navigation menuNavigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfricaAsiaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificWorld CupMiddle EastExplainedOpinionVideoMoreShow more sectionsFeaturesEconomySportHuman RightsClimate CrisisInvestigationsInteractivesIn PicturesScience & TechnologyPodcastsTravelSponsored Contentplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upSearching for the missing in Venezuela's deadly earthquakesTens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for after two earthquakes rattled Venezuela. Some families are taking the search into their own hands. xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoLa Guaira, Venezuela – It has been two weeks since a pair of powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela. And for nearly as long, Adolfo Guerra has kept vigil outside a vast field of rubble in the seaside neighbourhood of Los Corales. He has not given up hope that his daughter, Alexandra, a 23-year-old physiotherapist, might still be found under the debris. “We have faith she is alive. We know there is going to be a survivor,” Guerra said, sitting with his wife and other daughter beside him. Guerra is among the thousands in Venezuela living in a kind of limbo. Each day, the confirmed death toll ticks higher. Currently, it sits at approximately 3,811. But one figure remains unclear: how many thousands are still unaccounted for. Crowdsourcing websites have registered about 40,000 cases of missing people, although experts warn the databases may include duplicate reports or people who have since been found. Without closure, many families have arrived in hard-hit areas like La Guaira to search for their loved ones themselves. Guerra is among them. He travelled more than 400km (about 250 miles) from the inland state of Portuguesa to sit outside the remains of Alexandra's apartment. He sleeps at night beneath a makeshift tent, with a sheet of corrugated metal as a roof and patterned sheets as walls. There are no toilets or showers nearby. Dust hangs thick in the hot coastal air. Guerra and his family remember Alexandra as calm and cheerful, with a particular love for dogs. But there has been no sign of her yet. One night, rescuers pulled a body from the rubble and placed it near where they were sleeping. It remained there until the morning. The smell was overwhelming. But Guerra was just relieved it was not Alexandra. Posters now crowd walls, lampposts and shopfronts across La Guaira and the capital Caracas. They bear the faces of the dead. As rescue efforts continue, families search for their loved ones, hoping they will be among the 6,462 people rescued so far. But some face the grim prospect of identifying the dead. Inside an air-conditioned room at a funeral parlour in La Guaira, small wooden boxes line the floor, containing the remains of those who have already been identified and cremated. Staff say they have lost count of the bodies that have passed through since the earthquake. It has taken a psychological toll. "I went five days without sleeping — days and nights spent with people, living through their pain," Santiago Rodriguez, who works at the funeral parlour, told Al Jazeera. Every day, Rodriguez sees new families arriving at the funeral parlour, looking for their missing relatives. But many leave without answers. Some bodies have been buried without names, though photographs have been taken in case they can be identified later. Fingerprints can no longer be taken: Many bodies are now too decomposed. Workers in white forensic overalls can be seen throughout the day lugging corpses out of the building to stack in a van. Many of the bodies are being transported to a mass grave in La Esperanza, La Guaira. Rodriguez fears a situation similar to what Venezuela experienced in 1999, when mudslides in La Guaira killed an estimated 30,000 people in this region. The death toll was so high, and the devastation so vast, that some victims were never found. The same is likely to happen this time, Rodriguez said. A preliminary report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that the earthquake created 1.2 million tonnes of debris across La Guaira. Entire city blocks were flattened. "When they start removing all that rubble, the machines will destroy the remains of many bodies," Rodriguez said. He also believes the lack of government assistance has cost lives. While human rights groups have criticised the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela for violently suppressing dissent, Rodriguez said he is no longer scared. "The authorities have not really appeared at all," he said. "We lost some of our family. I lost my two grandchildren — my daughter’s two children. What else do I have to lose?" As days pass without answers, the frustration continues to fester among families searching for their loved ones. Heavy machinery has yet to arrive at some sites where buildings collapsed. Private companies donated cranes, machinery and large cooling containers to preserve bodies. But some of the cranes seen by Al Jazeera were not operating, and locals said they had run out of fuel. Meanwhile, many of the international rescue teams that travelled to Venezuela to help with the search have already left, as the chances of finding survivors diminish. The first 72 hours after an earthquake offer the greatest chance of survival. After that, rescues become increasingly rare. Venezuelans like Noel Marquez feel like the search for survivors has been left to them alone. Marquez, a police officer from La Guaira, lived in OPP 27, a social housing complex run by the government. The earthquakes reduced it to a pile of brick and cement. As Marquez stands near the wreckage, he points to two small wooden boxes. "That’s the ashes of my mother and my grandfather over there," Marquez states matter-of-factly. Even though a motorcycle crash left him with crutches, Marquez is still searching the collapsed building, which was charred after gas explosions in the aftermath of the earthquakes. A huge concrete slab blocks the area where he believes more of his family are buried: his pregnant sister in her third trimester, his brother-in-law, cousins and others. "My feet are badly injured, cracked open. I’m still here. I’m still searching," he said. "We don’t even have tears any more. We don’t cry. There’s just no time." Marquez slammed the Venezuelan government for failing to commit more resources to the rescue effort. There were a handful of firefighters with concrete-cutting equipment at the scene, but larger machinery was still lacking. "They say they are doing things, but the reality is what you see here," Marquez said. "The reality is what we are living through, not what the government says." Volunteer rescuer Cesar Baez arrived in La Guaira with a team of 10 from the Salvation Army, a church-led aid group, in the northwestern city of Barquisimeto. They were among those continuing to search for survivors. "There is still hope that we might find some people who are still alive, in an air pocket or a basement, so we are looking for thermal cameras and sound equipment," Baez said. He admits that the search has become increasingly difficult. Still, Baez believes it is important to keep trying: Even the smallest possibility of finding someone alive is reason enough. "You cannot take away their hope," Baez said of the families who continue to search. "You have to give them hope and believe that the impossible can happen." While some families wait for a miracle, others are simply hoping to recover their loved ones' remains. Jiselly Ramirez, 25, has been waiting outside the ruins of the Arichuna apartment complex in Los Corales for two weeks. Her older sister had been inside when the building collapsed. They had been exchanging text messages until the moment the earthquakes struck. Ramirez does not believe she could have survived. "I want to turn the page on this terrible tragedy, to let her body rest, and to not abandon her, not leave her alone," Ramirez said. Nearby, the Guerra family is still holding out for news of a rescue. Carmen Guerra, Alexandra’s sister, said she is confident good news will come. "My heart is calm," she said. "Because I have faith that God will one day bring her back to me. He will return her safely. Because my family is a family of four. I still have a family of four, not three." 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