“All we see is decay”: Covering human losses caused by Venezuela’s earthquakes | Earthquake news

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – The smell of death grew stronger as we climbed to the top of the collapsed building on the waterfront of La Guaira, Venezuela, a state devastated by successive earthquakes in June.

Al Jazeera correspondent Zain Basrawi and I traveled with the Qatar International Search and Rescue Group to document the repercussions of this devastating natural disaster.

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The stench is intense as the Qatari team, along with the Syrian White Helmets, attempt to separate a body from a tangle of concrete and tiles, their work made more difficult by the intense afternoon sun.

When the buried person is discovered, ancient waves of decay surge outward, and despite my face mask, I am forced to suppress the gag and the urgent need to get away.

Since the earthquakes struck on June 24, the death toll has risen steadily, now standing at more than 4,300 people.

As we traveled along the coast of La Guaira to Catia la Mar, this number seemed low.

Our car slowly made its way around the debris strewn on the road. All around us, the surrounding buildings are in an unrecognizable state.

There are low-rise homes where the roofs are now located directly above their ground floors. High-rise buildings collapsed on their sides like slain giants. One large apartment complex has been stripped of its exterior, exposing the locale that was hidden within. She was swinging dangerously on the twisted poles.

A tower leans dangerously in La Guaira, Venezuela, after the June 24 earthquakes [Alasdair Brenard/Al Jazeera]

The United Nations estimated that 50,000 Venezuelans are missing under the rubble.

Janet Viana, a 72-year-old resident who survived the quakes, hopes to get her son back. When I met her, she was staring at a tower on a hill on the coast. Its walls had collapsed, twisted metal covered in chunks of concrete littering its sides.

Viana told us that the government did not provide any assistance or heavy machinery to help recover the bodies inside, including her son. The government informed residents that the building would be demolished within a few days.

“I hope I can recover my son’s body before they destroy it completely,” she said. “That’s all I can hope for. What else can we hope for when there’s no response?”

While the earthquakes sparked a public backlash against Venezuela’s socialist-run government, supporters pointed to efforts by officials to address the crisis.

The Venezuelan army has secured a number of sites in La Guaira, and the government has set up an aid station, providing not only food and water, but also medical supplies and equipment, such as helmets, shovels, saws, etc.

The governor of La Guaira, José Alejandro Teran, told us that the government’s response to the earthquakes was immediate and that workers were responsible for rescuing more than 6,000 people from the rubble.

Janet Viana hopes to recover her son’s body from the wreckage of the earthquakes that struck Venezuela [Alasdair Brenard/Al Jazeera]

But many Venezuelans told us they had to take the rescue effort into their own hands, without government help.

When we met 30-year-old Javier Villegas, he was making his way in and out of a leaning building as if it might collapse at any moment.

He said there were about 38 bodies trapped inside, but the government “would not send anyone because they would be in danger.”

“Yes, I know they will be in danger, but there are still people there, and I don’t understand the humanity of this government,” he said, adding that he had been searching for his aunt every day since the earthquake.

He said: “I have not lost hope of saving her alive. It has been nine days and we have not heard anything yet.” “All we see is decay, but we are still fighting to get our loved ones out.”

Javier Villegas stands wearing a hard hat outside a dangerously unstable building in La Guaira, Venezuela [Alasdair Brenard/Al Jazeera]

Although Villegas and Viana have not given up hope, they know that time is running out. Soon heavy machinery will arrive, and the buildings will be crushed together and removed, along with all the furniture, pictures and loved ones still stuck inside.

As the days passed, and our reporting team continued to traverse the devastation, more bodies were discovered. The use of quicklime has become ubiquitous to mask odor and retard rot.

One day, we noticed that excavation work had temporarily stopped at one of the sites to allow the recovery of a woman who had died under the rubble.

I avoided looking directly at it as it was lifted from the site, as my camera lens acted as a physical barrier between me and what was unfolding.

Her body was not identifiable, but the discovery of the necklace was used to confirm her identity.

Moments later, two serious-looking men dressed in black approached me and the camera crew. Alex, one of the producers on our team, said they might be the police when he translated their request to watch the footage on camera.

We calmly assured them that the island had a clear policy of never broadcasting human remains. One of the men turned to me and looked directly into my eyes before uttering four words in English: “It’s my mother.”

It was his desire to protect his mother’s dignity and avoid sensationalizing her death in the media.

At that moment, I needed to stop, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the tragedy. I needed to get away. But for the people of La Guaira state, they still face the horror of this new reality every day.

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