“I hear my son crying under the rubble,” the painful account of a mother after the earthquakes in Venezuela

As search-and-rescue teams continue their work after the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela, dozens of families are still staying near the rubble in the hope that their loved ones may be alive.

One of them is Andreina Valerio, who says she continues to hear her nearly two-year-old son crying beneath the debris of a collapsed building in La Guaira.

Andreina left work in a rush on the day the two earthquakes shook the country to find her son Santiago. He was at his grandfather’s home, together with her partner, Ramsés Mendoza. When she arrived there, the building had completely collapsed.

According to her, her partner, her son, as well as her partner’s parents, grandparents and sister are still trapped under the rubble. Even though days have passed, she says she has not lost faith.

“I still believe that my son is alive. I believe it is him that I hear crying. I know that my son will get through this, just like his family will too”, Andreina said.

Her brother-in-law, Samuel Mendoza, said that on the morning after the earthquake he heard the voice of a woman calling for help, while the next day Andreina said she heard a baby crying. The family believes these voices are coming from their trapped relatives.

According to them, other trapped children are also in the same building, including a nine-year-old boy, Lucas, and a three-year-old girl, Aranza.

Rescue teams from El Salvador and Spain arrived at the scene on Saturday, but by then they had still not managed to enter the building or pull out any survivors.

La Guaira, one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquakes, has become the main center of the search effort. Family members are digging through the rubble with their hands, while neighbors and volunteers from different parts of Venezuela have joined in to help.

According to the authorities, more than 1,400 buildings have been destroyed in La Guaira state alone, while emergency teams are facing a shortage of resources and equipment to cope with the scale of the disaster.