Frustration and fading hopes in Venezuela with thousands still missing after twin quakes

Covered in dust, the pair were carried on a black tarp into an ambulance, where they were given intravenous fluids for hydration.

The U.S. State Department separately posted a video on X showing helmeted rescuers lifting a crying baby, wrapped in a blanket, from the rubble.

A Colombian rescue team also saved an 11-year-old boy who had been trapped about 10 feet beneath the debris after locating him with a scanner. He was carried away on a stretcher with a broken arm, while his mother and sister were killed.

The United Nations humanitarian affairs agency said Saturday that a total of 44 international urban search-and-rescue teams, comprising 2,245 specialists and 140 search dogs, had been deployed to Venezuela. More teams, including rescuers from Israel, arrived on Monday.

The U.S. Southern Command shared a post on X early Monday showing U.S. Marines assisting the ongoing search-and-rescue efforts, saying they were working “around the clock.”

But while a few people were found alive, such rescues became increasingly rare, and with each passing hour the operation was increasingly shifting from a search for survivors to the recovery of bodies.

Frustration has mounted over what many Venezuelans saw as an inadequate government response, with soldiers, firefighters, police and emergency services struggling to respond to the scale of the disaster.

Many residents felt precious time had been lost, watching the chances of finding loved ones alive diminish.

Although Rodríguez said on state television that more than 14,000 military personnel and police officers had been deployed to assist with rescue efforts and maintain security, many residents in the disaster zone said they had seen little evidence of that presence.