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Trejo family confirmed dead
Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo lost his wife and two children after the earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week, with Trejo’s family in La Guaira confirmed dead following days of searching through rubble.
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Trejo, 38, played for Venezuelan second-division club Club Sport Marítimo La Guaira and was attending a training camp in Caracas when the earthquakes struck, then immediately travelled to La Guaira, about 18 miles north of the capital.
The US Geological Survey described the quake as a rare “doublet” because two major tremors struck just 39 seconds apart, and authorities said more than 1,400 people have died while thousands remain missing.
CNN Español reported that Trejo’s brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles said the player was “emotionally overwhelmed” and that “absolutely nothing” remained of the family’s beachfront home in La Guaira.
The club later said it “deeply mourns the irreparable loss” of Trejo’s family in a statement shared on social media, posting a photograph of Trejo with his wife and children.
Voices and competing tolls
Ricardo Ardiles told CNN Español that “absolutely nothing” remained of the family’s beachfront home in La Guaira, describing what Trejo found as “a horrific scene.”
The death toll figures diverged across outlets, with Reuters and the Bangladeshi government-style framing absent here but instead CNN Español reporting “More than 1,400 people died and thousands more are missing in Venezuela,” while the Leadership Newspapers account said the twin earthquakes “have claimed nearly 1,500 lives.”
The club’s statement shared on social media included the line “Lucas, you are not alone. Your family at Marítimo La Guaira is with you,” as it confirmed the deaths and posted a family photograph.
The football community also mourned other victims, including 18-year-old Yimvert Berroteran, whose death was confirmed by the Venezuelan national team and the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) in the Leadership Newspapers report.
In a separate account, the Hindustan Times described Berroterán’s death as following an earthquake during a youth football tournament in Colombia, quoting journalist Jair Pineda on X: “We are in a position to confirm that, after 24 hours of intense work trying to rescue him, the Venezuelan Yimvert Berroteran did not survive”.
Broader fallout for football
Beyond Trejo’s family, the earthquakes killed and impacted multiple players in Venezuela, including Yimvert Berroteran, Víctor Palacios, and Razan Sijaa, with the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) and their respective clubs cited as sources for the deaths.
“Yimvert Berroterán, 18, a Venezuela under-20 national team forward, was found dead beneath the rubble of the earthquakes that devastated the country last Wednesday (the 24th)”
CNN Español also reported that the partner of Héctor Bello died while protecting their toddler, and Bello wrote on social media: “I’ll make sure to remind our baby girl how wonderful you were and how much you loved her.”
The Folha de S.Paulo account said Berroterán was found dead beneath rubble and that his girlfriend, Valentina Sandoval, was also among the dead in La Guaira, where the bodies were recovered two days after the earthquakes.
The same Folha de S.Paulo report said the earthquakes killed more than 1,700 people and about 50,000 are missing, while the Sporting Tribune account said authorities reported more than 1,400 deaths and thousands remain missing.
As the search continued, the Sporting Tribune described Trejo spending three days searching through rubble for his wife Yanina and children Aarón and Ainhoa, and it said the search ended in tragedy when the club confirmed the deaths in a statement shared on social media.
