A three year-old Venezuelan boy was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building by Jordanian emergency workers on Tuesday — six days after the devastating earthquakes that struck the South American nation.
The boy, identified as Klieber Morán, lived with his parents in Los Corales Garden 1, a residential apartment building in the northern state of La Guaira. The apartment building is one of the at least 189 buildings that collapsed on Wednesday after a deadly magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 doublet earthquake struck Venezuela, causing widespread devastation, especially in La Guaira.
Venezuela’s Communications Ministry detailed that the rescue operation was carried out by a Jordanian recue team during the early morning hours of Tuesday. The child was transported by ambulance to receive appropriate medical care.
The BBC, citing the Jordanian civil defense, reports that Klieber Morán had been given first aid treatment and his vital signs are good. According to Venezuelan outlets, the boy is still under observation in the pediatric trauma unit at the Domingo Luciani Hospital in Caracas. The child’s parents are reportedly still missing at press time.
At press time, authorities from Venezuela’s socialist regime have documented at least 1,943 dead and 10,571 injured, with the death toll rising with each passing day. At least 15,866 individuals are presently refugeed in shelters.
The United Nations warned earlier this week that some 50,000 people are still missing. According to Venezuelan authorities, it is estimated that 30,000 individuals were present in the La Guaira’s towns of Caraballeda and Catia la Mar — described as the most devastated by the earthquakes.
The boy’s aunt, Andreína Sarmiento, spoke with the Venezuelan outlet Runrunes on Tuesday and recounted that she repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempted to contact her sister and the boy’s mother, Ana Luz, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
She recounted that she found out that the Los Corales Garden 1 building had completely collapsed during the earthquake by the time she had just arrived on a bus ride from Merida state to Caracas on Friday. Runrunes detailed that when Sarmiento arrived at the ruins of the building in La Guaria, “there was no one there: no rescue workers, no people searching through the rubble, and no heavy equipment. It was just her and her siblings, clinging to the hope of finding their relatives who were buried under a pile of rubble.”
“I made my way into the back of the building as best I could. People told me not to because it was too dangerous, but my sister was trapped in there, and I love her,” Sarmiento told Runrunes.
“On Saturday, I went back into the rubble of the building. It already smelled bad. It smelled like something rotten, but I couldn’t leave them buried there, I felt I had to find them, dead or alive,” she added.
According to Runrunes, Venezuelan Child protective services officials spoke with Sarmiento to arrange temporary custody of the three year-old Klieber. Sarmiento explained that there have been times over the past hours when the boy suddenly starts crying.
“I manage to calm him down, I imagine he remembers what happened,” the aunt said.
“If my sister has left this world, her son will never want for anything,” Sarmiento vowed to Runrunes, and emphasized that continues to hold out hope that her sister and her husband-in-law will be found alive and that they can all start over together in the state of Mérida.
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