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- Twin earthquakes in June shattered Venezuela’s coastal state of La Guaira, transforming a Caribbean playground into a landscape of ruin and grief.
asserted
earthquakes → click → ruin
- Weeks later, families still camp beside the rubble searching for remains of loved ones.
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families → camp → ones
The region ravaged by the quakes is also scarred by floods that, by some estimates, left as many as 30,000 people dead in 1999.
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that → ravage → 1999
His mother, father and two sisters were among those entombed somewhere in the wreckage.
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mother → entomb → wreckage
He pitched a tent not far from the ruins of their former home.
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He → pitch → home
“I’m not leaving here until they find the bodies,” vowed José Luis Villegas, 37.
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Villegas → leave → bodies
Accompanying him was his wife, who held out hope for two missing brothers.
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who → accompany → brothers
“My mind is blank,” said Marianne Ramírez, 29.
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Ramírez → say → ?
“I feel too much pain.
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I → feel → pain
How does one reconstruct a life lost?”
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one → reconstruct → life
An ineffable sense of grief and uncertainty dominates the coastal state of La Guaira, the hardest-hit zone in the June 24 twin earthquakes — registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 — that pummeled Venezuela, leaving more than 6,300 dead.
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that → dominate → 6,300
More than six weeks later, at least 1,300 remain missing, though there is no exact count.
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1,300 → remain → ?
For years, engineers worried about how collapse-prone Venezuela’s buildings could be in an earthquake.
uncertain
buildings → worry → earthquake
The big problem, they warned, was the prevalence of tall concrete buildings atop soft soils — the kind that amplify shaking when an earthquake strikes.
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earthquake → warn → shaking
Now, as international attention has shifted to Monday’s 7.4 magnitude temblor in neighboring Colombia, La Guaira presents an apocalyptic sense of bleakness: Flies drone above ubiquitous piles of rubble reeking of decomposition in the unforgiving tropical sun; dazed residents embark on doleful daily pilgrimages to mounds of debris in the faint hope of discovering the fates of the disappeared; empty beach chairs face the turquoise surf.
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chairs → shift → surf
The rescue teams from across the globe that descended upon this strip of coast are long gone, as is international attention to the plight of La Guaira.
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attention → descend → Guaira
La Guaira, a sprawling region home to some 400,000 people, has long been a sun-splashed Caribbean retreat for residents of the inland capital, Caracas, a 40-minute drive away.
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Guaira → sprawl → capital
The quakes hit as La Guaira was marking the feast of San Juan, an annual celebration featuring the ritual beating of drums.
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Guaira → hit → drums
It’s a chance to chill for the people of a nation — once among the richest in Latin America — that has endured more than a decade of economic meltdown, political turmoil and mass emigration.
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that → ’ → meltdown
But, shortly after 6 p.m. on June 24, the two powerful quakes struck just 39 seconds apart.
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quakes → strike → June
L.A. County firefighters helped an international team rescue a man trapped for eight days under a collapsed building after devastating Venezuela earthquakes.
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team → help → earthquakes
Hundreds of buildings — hotels, apartment blocks, mixed-use structures — collapsed or were damaged beyond repair.
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Hundreds → collapse → repair
The frantic search for survivors has long since yielded to the grim spectacle of excavators clearing ruins.
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excavators → yield → ruins
Searchers in hazmat suits probe for corpses in mounds of cement, twisted rebar and the scattered detritus of everyday life.
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Searchers → probe → life
Many residents, like Villegas, squat close to destroyed homes, hopeful to be nearby when, and if, the remains of relatives are found.
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remains → squat → relatives
Government and private aid personnel struggle to house and feed thousands of displaced residents now residing in camps and schools across the state and in the capital, also named La Guaira.
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personnel → struggle → capital
Apart from material assistance, volunteers seek to provide some measure of emotional salve for the communal trauma.
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volunteers → seek → trauma
“We don’t bring any material aid,” said Sandra Rodríguez, part of a volunteer group that organizes clown shows and other diversions, speaking at a golf course that has become an official homeless encampment.
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that → bring → course
“We bring a hug, a smile, a sense of hope.
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We → bring → hope
That’s a challenge.
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That → ’ → ?
“It’s difficult to maintain hope amid so much tragedy,” said a nun from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity congregation, who was consoling survivors.
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who → ’ → survivors
“People ask: ‘Why did it happen to me? Why to us?’
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it → ask → us
They don’t have the answers.
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They → have → answers
Nor do we.”
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we → do → ?
After deadly twin quakes in Venezuela, survivor Rubén Darío Sillie used social media to beg for help amid a severely delayed and criticized government response.
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Sillie → use → response
A volunteer worker cuts steel bars in the rubble of a housing complex in Caraballeda.
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worker → cut → Caraballeda
With heavy machinery in short supply, a volunteer worker wields a sledgehammer in the search of bodies at the complex.
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worker → wield → complex
A Venezuelan flag waves amid the rubble.
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flag → wave → rubble
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, whose administration was widely assailed for its desultory initial response, has made high-profile appearances in La Guaira.
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administration → act → Guaira
The U.S.-backed leader has touted Venezuela Renace (“Venezuela Reborn”), an expansive plan to build thousands of new homes.
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leader → tout → homes
…and 48 more, not listed.
The Aporia
