Boy, 2, rescued from rubble six days after Venezuela quake

A 2-year-old boy was pulled alive from the rubble of his home in Venezuela’s La Guaira state after six days trapped beneath collapsed masonry, a rare survival as rescue crews kept working through a widening disaster zone.

Kleiber Moran was lifted out on Wednesday by Jordanian emergency workers and taken to hospital after rescuers said his vital signs were good. His aunt, 23-year-old Andreína Sarmiento, told the BBC that she would “take care of Kleiber with a mother’s warmth until my sister appears, which is what we long for.” The rescue became a brief moment of relief for a family still waiting to know whether the child’s mother and others buried in the quake zone will be found.

The boy was saved six days after twin earthquakes hit Venezuela on 24 June 2026, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 and striking within a minute of each other. UNICEF has described the quakes as the most significant seismic event to hit the country in more than a century. The agency estimated that 1.8 million people, including 680,000 children, needed humanitarian assistance after the disaster, with 3.9 million children living in affected areas.

Damage has been heaviest in La Guaira state, where preliminary satellite analysis found nearly a third of buildings in Catia La Mar had been damaged. More than 30 aftershocks were recorded, complicating search efforts and leaving emergency teams to work amid unstable structures and repeated jolts.

UNICEF said a 47-metric-ton shipment of humanitarian supplies arrived in Venezuela on 30 June to support children and families hit by the quakes. The aid is meant to shore up the most basic needs now facing displaced households: safe shelter, clean water and urgent care for children pulled from destroyed homes or still waiting to be found.

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, called the rescue a “source of hope for our people” as the death toll from the twin quakes continued to rise. In the hardest-hit neighborhoods, the challenge now is no longer only pulling people from the rubble, but keeping them alive, housed and cared for after the cameras leave.