Margarita Rodríguez

Two powerful earthquakes in Venezuela left thousands dead and missing, including teenagers rehearsing for a graduation performance in La Guaira. María Lourdes Pérez recounts the deaths of her two sons and the lack of timely rescue efforts, describing families’ desperate search through debris without adequate state assistance. International teams arrived but were unable to meet the scale of destruction, with over a million tons of rubble and tens of thousands of damaged buildings. Survivors and religious volunteers report widespread grief, scarcity of resources and fear of aftershocks, while officials defend the government's emergency response amid growing public criticism.