Argentine Footballer Lucas Trejo Searches Rubble After Venezuela Quakes Kill Wife Yanina and Children

Back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela’s northern coast last Wednesday, and the apartment building where Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo’s family was staying collapsed in Playa Grande.

“In Pictures Rescue crews and volunteers have clawed through the rubble of collapsed buildings, racing to find survivors 72 hours after twin earthquakes tore through Venezuela, killing at least 1,430 people and leaving tens of thousands missing”

Al Jazeera

Trejo, 38, was in Caracas with his team when the quakes hit, and after learning his family’s building had collapsed he rushed to the disaster zone and appealed on social media for information as rescue efforts continued.

Al Jazeera

The Daily Star said rescue workers recovered the bodies of Trejo’s wife, Yanina Maranella, and their children, Aaron and Ainhoa, after a 74-hour search through the rubble.

The Guardian reported that Trejo searched through rubble in the coastal city for his wife, Yanina, and their children, Aaron and Ainhoa, for three days before their bodies were recovered by rescue workers.

The Guardian also said the disaster claimed the lives of youth players Victor Palacios and Razan Sijaa, with Palacios playing for Club Sport San Augustín’s academy and Sijaa playing for Caracas Fútbol Club and dying with his family at their La Guaira home.

As rescuers and civilians searched in La Guaira, the death toll climbed to 1,430, and families reported at least 68,900 people missing, three days after the one-two punch of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes.

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth quoted Mileidy Romero saying, “At 8 p.m. there were people alive down there, and they haven’t bothered to rescue them,” as she searched in the seaside town of Caraballeada.

ClickOnDetroit

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television that more than 14,000 members of the military and police were patrolling the area, where access was now blocked and special permits were required to enter.

Al Jazeera described the rescue window as ending on Sunday and quoted Australian firefighter Craig Demeillon, 43, saying, “Hopefully, there’s more people to find.”

Al Jazeera also reported that the United Nations said up to 6.76 million people may need shelter, safe water and medical care, warning the death toll and the number of bodies recovered were likely to keep rising as the rescue phase gave way to grim recovery.

With the 72-hour search period passing, Al Jazeera said the first three days after such disasters are a critical window to locate people alive beneath the debris, and that window ends on Sunday.

“This had been, until four days ago, the vacation destination for Caracas residents, a beach just one hour's drive from the capital of Venezuela”

Folha de S.Paulo

The Guardian reported that the US Geological Survey predicts deaths could reach 10,000, and it said the earthquake was the most powerful in Venezuela since 1900.

In La Guaira, AP reported that Venezuelans took the search for missing loved ones into their own hands, citing the scarcity of government rescuers, as the human toll climbed to at least 920 dead and more than 51,000 missing.

People said Deportivo la Guaira posted on social media that it joined “the grief that overwhelms player Lucas Trejo” for the “sensitive passing of his wife, Yanina Maranella, and of his children, Aarón and Ainhoa Trejo.”

People also said Jorge Rodriguez, the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly, announced in a press conference that the death toll has risen to 1,430, while more than 2,300 people were injured and more than 3,000 were left homeless.