CATIA LA MAR, Venezuela — A 43-year-old security guard was brought out alive from the rubble of a collapsed basement early Thursday morning, bringing an end to an exhausting multi-day rescue effort that captured the world’s attention following the destruction caused by two powerful earthquakes that hit Venezuela eight days ago.
Hernán Alberto Gil Flores had been trapped beneath the debris of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal community of La Guaira since June 24. Rescue teams first made contact with him over the weekend before successfully extracting him Thursday.
As rescuers carried Gil Flores out on a stretcher draped in an orange tarp, crowds cheered and waved flags from countries around the world. He was loaded into a Red Cross ambulance while members of the Costa Rican Red Cross team, dressed in red uniforms, embraced one another in tearful relief.
Gil Flores had been working the night shift at the shopping complex when the first earthquake hit. The concrete structure around him crumbled, but the small security cabin where he was stationed remained intact, protecting him from the falling debris and preserving a pocket of breathable air.
Costa Rican Red Cross rescuer Minyar Collado recalled a striking moment after making contact with the survivor. “When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Collado told the Associated Press.
The Costa Rican Red Cross team was the first to detect signs of life and establish communication with Gil Flores on Sunday.
His wife, Gusbimar González, described the anguish of the days before rescuers reached him. She told the AP that once she learned he had survived, “I saw a ray of light in the darkness.” The couple shares two children, aged 8 and 10.
The rescue operation was led by an urban search and rescue unit of Chilean firefighters, who worked continuously alongside specialized teams from the United States, Portugal, Mexico, and other nations.
“We (were) never going to leave him here,” Collado said prior to the successful extraction.
Rescue crews faced severe challenges throughout the operation, including unstable structural conditions, heavy rainfall, and ongoing aftershocks. They drilled a narrow shaft to reach Gil Flores, using a telescopic camera to stay in visual contact and passing water and liquid nutrients through the opening to keep him alive during the final three days of the extraction process.
Chilean firefighter María Paz Campos guided Gil Flores through the entire ordeal, helping him stay calm during the most difficult hours of Thursday’s rescue. In video footage released by the Chilean firefighters before the extraction, Gil Flores is seen drawing — apparently to pass the time — while Campos gently instructs him to face the camera and put on protective goggles.
“I need that you keep the goggles on, for the small particles that are falling, to avoid them getting into your eye,” Campos told him.
The shopping center collapsed after two back-to-back earthquakes struck on June 24, registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The shallow tremors caused widespread destruction across northern Venezuela, damaging or destroying tens of thousands of buildings, killing more than 2,200 people, injuring over 11,000 others, and leaving La Guaira state as the most severely affected area in the country.
