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The Fallout of Massive Earthquakes for Venezuela — and the U.S.
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Civilian Heroes: Venezuelans Mount Their Own Rescue
At 22:22 · chapter starts 22:14
As the government failed, Venezuelans took over. Natasha Villa coordinated food deliveries to La Guaira within the first 24 hours. Carlos Yalambi and friends woke up each morning, loaded supplies, and drove into the disaster zone. The encounters were profound: strangers saying goodbye with hugs after conversations of just five minutes. Yalambi received calls from Venezuelans abroad begging him to check on their mothers. He rode motorcycles into the hardest-hit areas — in one case, arriving at a building that had completely collapsed — to try to locate people for desperate families. Many survivors had seen no official help at all; the civilians arriving with food and information were their first contact with the outside world.
Ordinary Venezuelans — rich and poor alike — were the first and often only help that many survivors saw, mounting impromptu rescue missions with no experience or official support.
With the government missing in action in the critical first 24-48 hours, ordinary Venezuelans took over: cooking food, delivering supplies, digging through rubble, opening their homes. Karmanayev, a veteran correspondent, was moved to tears. But he warns it was Band-Aids on a catastrophe.
