A Venezuelan aunt told the BBC that she was giving him ‘a mother’s warmth’ after being pulled from the rubble.

She said she and Anna Luz, 31, were very close and spoke daily via video calls. Her sister always had Cleber by her side.

“Wherever she went, her son went too. She made him happy with whatever Kleber wanted. If she didn’t have money, she would call me: ‘Kleber needs this’ or ‘He lacks this,'” Andrina said.

“She is my older sister and I always trusted her and I could tell her my problems and when I spoke to her on a video call, the child was by her side.”

Andrea said she was sure her sister was next to Kleiber in the wreckage.

While she was hospitalized with her nephew, desperate search and rescue efforts continued after the earthquake.

About 2,295 deaths have been officially recorded, but the final number is expected to be many times higher. Tens of thousands are missing and the United Nations says it is buying 10,000 body bags for the country.

Andrea said she is not giving up hope that Kleiber’s parents will be saved.

“I have faith that they will find my sister and my brother-in-law just like they found my nephew,” she said.

Looking at Clayburn lovingly, she says she believes he “has a purpose in the world.”

“When this boy grows up, God willing, this will be his story,” she said.

Additional reporting by Euridice Ledezma