Extract from ABC News
More than 770 buildings have been partially or completely destroyed and tens of thousands of people remain missing after Venezuela's two earthquakes. (Rueters: Miguel Medina)
In short:
An infant and two 11-year-old boys pulled alive from underneath rubble are among at least 33 people rescued after Venezuela's two devastating earthquakes.
A multinational search and rescue operation continues to sift through heavily impacted areas, while tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted-for.
What's next?
The European Union and the US have announced they will offer emergency assistance and relief packages worth millions to aid the disaster response.
Rescuers in Venezuela have saved an infant and two 11-year-old boys from lying underneath rubble caused by Venezuela's devastating earthquakes.
The three children are among at least 33 people who were rescued during a weekend multinational operation that continued searching for survivors, while tens of thousands remained unaccounted-for.
The death toll from the earthquakes on Wednesday rose to at least 1,450 as of Saturday, local time, as foreign rescue teams poured into coastal La Guaira, the hardest-hit state.
A boy was rescued alive from underneath 3 metres of rubble after being located by a scanner. (Reuters: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
Families and volunteers spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble before the arrival of the more than 2,000 foreign rescue workers, often complaining of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence, as hundreds of aftershocks deepened damage and kept residents on edge.
The government, headed by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, initially thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then heavily tightened access to the road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles and that only accredited people could use the roadway.
Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted-for on a website promoted by the country's political opposition on Sunday.
Rescues spark hope amid scenes of devastation
The US State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by US rescue crews on Saturday, posting a video on X showing helmet-clad rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.
An infant was pulled alive by US rescuers from underneath the rubble of a building in La Guaira. (Reuters: Supplied / US Department of State)
A Colombian rescue team also saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped some 3 metres deep in rubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.
He was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered by cloth to protect them from the shock of daylight. His mother and sister were killed in the quake.
Mexican rescuers working at a collapsed building in the town of Caraballeda rescued another 11-year-old boy, Ms Rodriguez posted on X late on Saturday, showing crews carrying a small figure on a stretcher out of the rubble.
Rescue workers from the US and France also pulled a man and his son from the ruins on Sunday morning and carried them carefully on a black tarp into an ambulance.
A multinational search and rescue operation worked through the weekend to sift through piles of rubble and debris in parts of La Guaira. (Reuters: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
Masses of people gathered to watch the rescue as the survivors — covered in dust — were hydrated through an IV.
More than 2,200 rescue workers from across the world had arrived by Saturday, according to the United Nations.
"It's been incredibly hard work, but we're going strong," Jason Mercano, a civilian who was able to communicate with family buried under the rubble, said via social media.
"We've never given up hope."
Some people climbed the remnants of buildings and cried out names, hoping for any proof of life.
Dust coated some of Venezuela's coastal communities while people who were among the debris wore masks amid punishing heat in an attempt to avoid the stench of decomposition.
Masses of Venezuelan civilians joined the rescue operations, with many frustrated by the speed of the government emergency response. (Reuters: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
In parts of La Guaira, rescue teams loaded stacks of bodies — some in white bags, others naked — onto white trucks from the ground of a dirt hospital parking lot, where they were being identified.
Without hard hats or other gear, rescuers and civilians instead wore motorcycle helmets as they searched piles of debris.
Some, frustrated by the government's response, blocked an excavator from leaving the site of a collapse and pulled the operator from its cabin shortly after state workers took selfies in front of flattened buildings and left without helping.
The government posted videos of Ms Rodriguez meeting with international rescuers, where she gave the figure of people saved on Saturday, and said more than 3,000 people were injured, while a similar number were living in shelters.
Emergency-trained search dogs were also used by rescue teams to locate people trapped under rubble. (Reuters: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
In Caraballeda on Saturday, US rescuers worked alongside remaining civilian volunteers, some of whom were searching for their own family members.
Rescuers had originally spray-painted the rubble with the name of the apartment building that used to stand there.
By Saturday evening, they had marked debris with coding indicating they believed no living person remained in the ruins.
The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude-7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, which would place them among Latin America's deadliest of the last century.
The clock is ticking for rescuing people still living amid the rubble, experts say.
Rescuers searching through the ruins of buildings began marking them with their names or symbols to show that no living person was believed to be underneath the rubble. (Reuters: Miguel Medina)
"There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive," Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, told Reuters on Saturday.
The 80-strong team had found multiple people alive in the rubble thanks to alerts from their eight search dogs, but had not been able to pull them out in time to save them, he added.
Saturday evening marked 72 hours since the quakes.
The Swiss team will jointly define with other teams and local authorities when rescue operations will end, Mr Eugster said, but will remain on the ground to help with other aid work.
For many, the images of international aid teams arriving and climbing through the rubble alongside them offered a glimmer of hope.
Yonahí Regalado has been calling out the names of her sister and one-year-old nephew and godson since 1am the day after the earthquakes until aid workers began to arrive.
"It doesn't matter who it is, whoever, whether it's family or somebody else. If there is anyone alive, let's get them out,"she said.
Small moments of humanity mixed with grief and terror.
One video showed a Venezuelan rescuer comforting an elderly woman trapped beneath the rubble, scared that the structure would cave in if she moved.
"The roof won't cave in. If it falls, I'll be here with you," he said.
Mourners in Spain attending a vigil dedicated to the victims of Venezuela's earthquakes, as a global outpouring of grief was seen in various countries. (Reuters: Eva Manez)
Global shows of support in wake of disaster
Pope Leo on Sunday told worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome that he wanted "to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes" and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that the EU had mobilised 5 million euros ($8.2 million) in emergency assistance and that its Copernicus satellite system is helping map the damage and direct assistance to the areas most in need.
A senior US official said on Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be announced within the next day or so, in addition to $US150 million ($217 million) that the Trump administration had already committed.
The disaster could have political consequences for Ms Rodriguez, who has portrayed herself as an agent of change even though she served as vice-president under predecessor Nicolas Maduro.
Ms Rodríguez said on state television Saturday that more than 14,000 members of the military and police were patrolling La Guaira, where access is now blocked and special permits are required to enter.
Venezuela's government said more than 770 buildings had totally or partially collapsed from the earthquake, twice as many as were reported destroyed or damaged on Friday.
AP/Reuters
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