A man has been rescued alive after spending eight days trapped beneath the rubble of a building that collapsed following twin earthquakes in Venezuela, in what authorities have described as a “living miracle”.
Emergency rescue teams freed Hernán Gil more than 100 hours after they first detected signs of life beneath approximately 140 tonnes of debris.
Venezuela’s Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, visited Gil in hospital on Thursday, hailing his survival as extraordinary. In a video shared on social media, she described him as “a living miracle”.
Gil’s rescue comes as Venezuela continues to grapple with the devastating aftermath of the twin earthquakes that struck on 24 June. As of Thursday evening, authorities confirmed that 2,595 people had died, while tens of thousands remain missing.
Addressing a press conference, Rodríguez described the disaster as “a natural tragedy on a scale we never imagined”.
She also dismissed criticism that the government had been slow to respond to the catastrophe.
“We’ve done everything in our power, and we’ll continue to do everything in our power and more,” Rodríguez told journalists, insisting that thousands of officials had been deployed immediately after the earthquakes.
The painstaking rescue operation involved emergency teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States.
A Chilean firefighter involved in the mission described the effort as “without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I’ve had to tackle”.
Costa Rican Red Cross paramedic Allan Madrigal, who first detected Gil’s faint cries for help on Sunday, recalled the emotional breakthrough.
“It was an emotional moment,” Madrigal said, explaining that he initially doubted what he had heard and asked a colleague to confirm that he “wasn’t just imagining it”.
From that moment, rescuers worked around the clock to reach Gil.
The security guard had been on duty inside a small concrete booth in the basement parking area adjacent to the Galerias Playa Grande mall in Catia La Mar when the earthquakes struck. The booth is believed to have formed a protective shell around him, shielding him from the massive weight of the collapsed building.
Another Costa Rican Red Cross worker revealed shortly before Gil was rescued that, “He has told us that he does not even have a crushed nail.”
Throughout the operation, rescuers supplied Gil with water and connected him to an intravenous drip while engineers and emergency workers carefully excavated the unstable debris.
The rescue was repeatedly complicated after sections of the narrow access tunnels dug to reach him collapsed several times, posing significant risks both to Gil and the emergency teams.
After days of digging, rescuers finally established visual contact overnight using a small camera inserted through the rubble.
Video footage from inside the collapsed structure showed a Chilean firefighter asking Gil to turn his head towards the camera. One of Gil’s eyes appeared bloodshot, while he wore a protective face mask that rescuers had earlier passed through a small opening to shield him from dust and debris.
The firefighter also instructed him to wear protective goggles as teams continued removing rubble around him.
Marco Antonio Franco of the Mexican Red Cross described Gil as “a cheerful man” despite the ordeal.
Speaking to Mexican news outlet Milenio, Franco said the survivor “even asked for hydration drinks of specific flavours he likes”, adding that “of course we indulged him”.
“He himself drives us on, telling us to carry on. He recognises our team members, saying ‘how nice that you came back and that you’re with me again’,” Franco added.
According to Franco, rescuers maintained constant conversations with Gil throughout the operation, discussing his family and the progress of the rescue to keep his spirits high.
For Madrigal, who was participating in his first international rescue mission, the experience was life-changing.
“The lad who came here a week ago is not the same one that will return to Costa Rica, believe me,” he told reporters.
