As quake rescue winds down, Venezuelans face horrors of recovering their own dead family members

By — Fernanda Pesce, Associated Press Fernanda Pesce, Associated Press By — Isabel DeBre, Associated Press Isabel DeBre, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/as-quake-rescue-winds-down-venezuelans-face-horrors-of-recovering-their-own-dead-family-members Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter As quake rescue winds down, Venezuelans face horrors of recovering their own dead family members World Jul 7, 2026 3:51 PM EDT Editor's Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of death and efforts to retrieve earthquake victims' bodies. LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — When the high-rise where Noel Márquez lived with his family crashed to the ground and burst into flames in Venezuela's twin earthquakes, Márquez, who happened to be at his girlfriend's apartment, raced home and called out for his mother, grandparents and siblings. Only his 17-year-old brother, his legs pinned under columns that required heavy machinery to lift, responded. READ MORE: Venezuelans rush to identify the bodies of their loved ones as earthquake deaths multiply Márquez and his father, who also survived, spoke through layers of concrete, hearing Leonel suffer, shout for help and inhale suffocating smoke as he waited for a crane to remove the columns crushing him. But it never came. After several hours, Leonel's cries gave way to silence, Márquez said. But even that, terrible as it was, was not what disturbed him the most. The worst, Márquez said, was trying to recover his families' tangled remains with little more than his bare hands and a saw. He sliced off limbs to free the corpses of Leonel and his mother but was forced to abandon his sister, who was eight-months' pregnant, grandmother and other relatives beneath the ruins — and with their bodies, the hope that if he couldn't save them, he could at least give them proper burials. "It's unfair. It's inhumane, everything that is happening," 26-year-old Márquez said from the overflowing makeshift morgue at La Guaira port. "We couldn't get my brother out because we didn't get a response from the state ... and after 11 days, we are still requesting a crane." READ MORE: In Venezuela, a 'completely ineffective' government worsens earthquake disaster, experts say Márquez is one of countless Venezuelans who, after days of torment, has been left alone to search, if not for signs of life, then for loved ones' remains — and for some semblance of closure. International rescue teams, quietly acknowledging the possibility that no more victims would be found alive after 12 days under the rubble, are preparing to depart. Local authorities are turning their focus to finding shelter for thousands of displaced people. But the recovery of the dead has become a pressing, and horrifying, duty for Venezuelans still missing their loved ones. "I found her hand, but her torso is crushed," said Norely Rodríguez, trying to get her 5-year-old daughter out of the ruin