More than four months after twin earthquakes hit Venezuela on June 24, many families are still searching for relatives who have not been found. The government has not published an official count of missing people, so residents are keeping their own.
Officials released a final death toll of 6,509 on August 24. Rights groups say the real number is far higher. Independent and international estimates put it between 10,000 and 20,000.
A Mother’s Vigil
In La Guaira, Eilyn Solano has lived in a tent beside the ruins of the OPP 26 social housing project for over 100 days. She has not left the site once. Her youngest son, 11-year-old Jhoniel José Morales, disappeared after the towers collapsed.
She tracks the bodies recovered from the rubble. She believes he is still there. Community support has kept the search going. Affected families have supplied water, ice and electrolytes to the search teams.
So far, the Solano family has recovered the remains of more than 17 people. There is still no sign of Jhoniel.
His family thinks he went to play at a nearby sports field, where one tower fell. Security footage showed him going down the apartment stairs at 3:59 p.m. on June 24. His 12-year-old sister, Mariangel, died in the quake. His 15-year-old sister, María Yailén, survived.
Search teams dug around the sports field on September 26 but did not find him. They did find the security camera control room. A disc inside holds a second video, which the family says shows the boy leaving the building minutes before the quake.
That finding shifted the search. The family now checks streets, collection centres and cemeteries, including an area for unidentified burials at La Esperanza cemetery in Catia la Mar. Eilyn’s sister, Chiquinquirá, said a glimmer of hope remains. The family survived the 1999 Vargas mudslide and says it will not give up. Relatives and volunteers travel by motorcycle to medical centres, morgues and shelters between La Guaira and Caracas. They ask the public to keep sharing Jhoniel’s photo.
“Until There Is a Body, There Is No Death”
Parts of La Guaira, where dozens of buildings fell, are now empty and silent. In some areas, a larger military presence is clearing rubble. Families say no officials were on site in the first hours. The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez defends its rescue response.
At the Residencias Caribe complex, families, firefighters and volunteers keep a bulletin board listing who may still lie under the concrete.
Nayibe Geromes is looking for her mother, Leida Mata. The two spoke about six hours before the quakes. Seawater has flooded the two basements and the structure is wrecked. Nayibe does not expect to find a complete body, only skeletal remains. Still, she said, “until there is a body, there is no death.”
Angie Valentina Sojo Andarcia is searching for her husband. She was in Caracas at a doctor’s appointment when the quake struck. She was on the phone with him and heard glass break before the line went dead. A volunteer foundation recently cleared debris to the spot where her kitchen stood. She also arranged for her brother-in-law to travel from Táchira state for DNA testing at a morgue, but there has been no match. She says she knows of no official channel for reporting missing persons.
Rights Groups Raise Alarm
Ronnie Boquier, legal coordinator at the human rights group Cofavic, spoke of “information opacity” and violations of victims’ rights. He also cited serious failures in following international protocols for identifying and handling bodies.
Cofavic says it found critical lapses in the chain of custody at the La Guaira silos, where a makeshift morgue operates. It reviewed several complaints and found problems in at least five cases. Families said they had to look through 400 to 600 digital photos of badly decomposed bodies, with no technical or psychological support. When they checked the body bags, the remains did not match their relatives. This has fuelled fears that some bodies were given to the wrong families.
Boquier said the state should have the means to respond. If it does not, he said, it must find the resources, including international aid.
The Ombudsman’s Office told CNN it keeps phone and in-person lines open for missing-persons reports. It says it has handled more than 100 complaints or requests for guidance. It also says reports of missing children and young people have been fully processed, with investigations ending when bodies were found under the rubble.
CNN has asked the Attorney General’s Office, the Interior Ministry and the forensic and criminal investigation bodies about their protocols. It has not reported their responses.
