Venezuela rescue pulls security guard alive from collapsed basement

Hernán Gil was pulled alive from a collapsed basement in Catia La Mar, giving Venezuela a rare moment of hope after eight days of destruction from twin earthquakes. The security guard had been trapped beneath a pancaked nine-story building in La Guaira state while crews worked to carve a path through concrete, passing him food and water through a narrow shaft.

The rescue came as the quake disaster’s toll kept rising. Authorities and rescuers have counted at least 2,295 dead and about 13,000 homeless, figures that have turned each sign of survival into a stark contrast with the wider emergency still unfolding across the country.

Gil’s extraction was carried out by an international rescue operation coordinated by Chilean firefighters, who worked around the clock with specialized teams from the United States, Portugal and Mexico, among others. The effort focused on stabilizing the damaged structure while crews removed debris layer by layer from around the basement where Gil had been pinned since the earthquakes struck.

His wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, described the outcome as a miracle and said she was struck by the scale of the response. “This is truly a miracle,” Gonzalez said. “I’m completely amazed because it’s the first time I’ve seen so many countries come together like this to save a single person.”

The rescue in Catia La Mar stood out not because it changed the scope of the disaster, but because it exposed how narrow the margin for survival had become. One man lived through eight days in a collapsed basement because rescuers could keep him supplied, keep the structure from giving way, and keep enough heavy equipment on site to cut through the wreckage without burying him deeper. For families searching through ruins and for officials facing the death toll, the operation offered a rare success inside a crisis defined by loss.