Eight days after twin earthquakes devastated Venezuela, emergency workers pulled a man alive from 140 tonnes of rubble — a rescue the acting president called a 'living miracle'.
Hernán Gil, a security guard, had been trapped in the basement of a parking lot adjacent to the Galerias Playa Grande mall in Catia La Mar when the quakes struck on 24 June. His small concrete booth created a shell around him, protecting him from the collapse.
“Venezuelan security guard Hernán Gil rescued alive after eight days trapped under 140 tonnes of rubble from twin earthquakes.”
Rescuers first heard his faint cries for help on Sunday, more than 100 hours before they finally freed him. Allan Madrigal, a paramedic with the Costa Rican Red Cross, recalled the moment: 'It was an emotional moment. At first I did not trust my own ears and asked a colleague to confirm that I wasn't just imagining it.'
From that point, teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States worked to inch closer to Gil, who survived on water and an intravenous drip. The access ducts they built collapsed several times, highlighting the danger to both rescuers and survivor.
Speaking shortly before the rescue, another Costa Rican Red Cross worker said: 'He has told us that he does not even have a crushed nail.'
A Chilean firefighter described the operation as 'without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I've had to tackle.'
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez visited Gil in hospital on Thursday. In a video shared on social media, she called him a 'living miracle'. At a press conference, she described the earthquakes as 'a natural tragedy on a scale we never imagined' and rejected criticism of the government's response, saying thousands of officials had been deployed.
'We've done everything in our power, and we'll continue to do everything in our power and more,' Rodríguez told journalists.
As of Thursday evening, 2,595 people are confirmed dead and tens of thousands remain missing.