Venezuela rescue teams save security guard after eight days beneath rubble

Rescue teams in Venezuela pulled a 43-year-old security guard alive after eight days trapped under the rubble, bringing an end to a days-long operation that offered a rare moment of hope following the devastating earthquakes.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores had been trapped beneath the rubble of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping centre in the coastal state of La Guaira since June 24, Caliber.Az reports, citing the AP.

Rescue crews first established contact with him over the weekend before successfully bringing him to safety.

Gil Flores, wearing an oxygen mask, was carried on a stretcher covered with an orange tarp through cheering crowds and into a Red Cross ambulance. Rescue workers from several countries celebrated the successful operation, with some embracing and applauding as he emerged alive.

The rescue was widely viewed as extraordinary, as teams managed to keep Gil Flores alive well beyond the typical 48- to 72-hour period during which survivors are usually found after major disasters. Rescuers supplied him with food and water while carefully removing debris around him.

Gil Flores had been working the night shift as a security guard at the shopping centre when the first earthquake struck. Although the surrounding structure collapsed, the small security booth where he was stationed remained largely intact, protecting him from the falling concrete and leaving enough space for him to survive.

“When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Costa Rican Red Cross rescuer Minyar Collado told The Associated Press, but she added, “We were never going to leave him here.”

A specialised Costa Rican Red Cross team first detected signs of life and made contact with Gil Flores on Sunday.

His wife, Gusbimar González, said she endured days of uncertainty before learning that rescuers had reached him.

“When I learned he was alive, I saw a ray of light in the darkness,” she said.

The couple have two children, aged eight and ten.

The operation was led by an urban search and rescue unit from Chile, supported by specialised teams from the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Working in dangerous conditions, rescuers navigated an unstable structure, heavy rainfall and repeated aftershocks as they dug toward the survivor. A telescopic camera allowed teams to maintain communication with Gil Flores while delivering water and liquid nutrients through a narrow opening during the final days of the operation.

Chilean firefighter María Paz Campos remained in constant contact with him throughout the rescue, helping to keep him calm during the final stages.

In video footage released by Chilean firefighters shortly before the rescue, Gil Flores could be seen drawing while waiting to be freed. Campos instructed him to put on protective eyewear.

“I need you to keep the goggles on, for the small particles that are falling, to avoid them getting into your eye,” Campos told the Venezuelan survivor.

The shopping centre collapsed after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The shallow earthquakes caused widespread destruction across northern parts of the country, damaging or destroying tens of thousands of buildings.

More than 2,200 people were killed, over 11,000 were injured, and La Guaira became the region most severely affected by the disaster.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov