‘What we see is decay’: Covering the population of the earthquakes in Venezuela | Stories About Earthquakes

La Guaira, Venezuela – The smell of death grows stronger as we climb over a collapsed building on the shores of La Guaira in Venezuela, a country devastated by back-to-back earthquakes in June.

Al Jazeera reporter Zein Basravi and I flew with the Qatar International Search and Rescue Group to cover the aftermath of this devastating natural disaster.

Recommended Articles

list of things 3end of series

The fetid smell hangs heavy as the Qatari team, along with the Syrian White Helmets, try to separate the body from the concrete and tiles, their work made more difficult by the midday sun.

When the buried person is exhumed, waves of damage come out, and even with my eye mask, I am forced to suppress the shock and the urgent need to turn around.

Since the earthquakes began on June 24, the death toll has been steadily rising, currently exceeding 4,300.

As we walked along the coast of La Guaira to the city of Catia La Mar, that number felt small.

Our car slowly moved around the debris on the road. All around us, the surrounding buildings are in the unknown.

There are low-rise buildings whose roofs now sit above their basements. Tall buildings have fallen on their sides like slain giants. Another large building was stripped of its exterior, revealing the furnishings once hidden inside. It squealed horribly against the stone pillars.

The United Nations says 50,000 Venezuelans are missing in the deserts.

Janet Viana, a 72-year-old earthquake survivor, hopes to recover her son. When I met him, he was looking at the top of a tower that was on top of a mountain by the sea. Its walls had collapsed, and corrugated iron, covered with concrete fragments, had spilled over its sides.

Viana told us that the government did not provide any aid or heavy machinery to help bring the bodies back inside, including her son. The government has informed the residents that the building will be demolished in a few days.

He said: “I hope I can get my son’s body back before he breaks it. That’s all I hope for. What can we hope for when there is no answer?”

Although the earthquakes have fueled opposition to the Venezuelan government, supporters say the authorities are working hard to deal with the problem.

The Venezuelan army has found several places in La Guaira, and the government has set up an aid station, providing not only food and water, but also medical equipment and tools, such as helmets, spades, saws, and more.

The governor of La Guaira, Jose Alejandro Teran, told us that the government’s response to the earthquake was swift and that workers were responsible for rescuing more than 6,000 people from the ruins.

But many Venezuelans told us that they have to save in their own hands, without government help.

When we met Javier Villegas, 30, he was walking in and out of a lean-to building as if it might collapse at any moment.

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

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

He said: “I have not given up hope that they will be rescued alive, but it has been 9 days and we have not heard anything. What we see is decay, but we are still fighting to get our loved ones out.”

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

As the days passed and our reporting team continued to wade through the destruction, more bodies were found. The use of quicklime was common to mask odors and slow decay.

One day, we saw that the excavation work was stopped at a certain place so that a woman who died in the ruins could be brought out.

I avoided looking directly at him as he was removed from the scene, my camera’s viewfinder acting as a barrier between me and the action.

His body was unrecognizable, but a necklace was found to identify him.

After a while, two men dressed in black approached me with a camera crew. Alex, our team designer, said he could be the police as he translated what he wanted to see on my camera.

We calmly assured them that Al Jazeera has a clear policy not to broadcast human remains. One of the men turned to me and looked straight into my eyes before speaking four words in English: “It’s my mother.”

His goal was to protect his mother’s honor and to keep her death out of the media.

At that time, I had to stop, when I faced a serious problem. I had to run away. But for the residents of La Guaira district, they continue to face daily dangers.