Rescue team leader describes shoddy construction in collapsed Venezuelan buildings
The seven-member team assembled in Miami after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24. They brought saws capable of cutting through concrete and steel, and decades of combined disaster-response experience. The team — which Michael Saavedra, a Miami Beach firefighter who serves as the group’s director, calls the Magnificent Seven — included firefighters, a former U.S. soldier, an expert lockpicker and a nurse from Boston.
After waiting four days for Venezuela’s government to approve entry permits, the team flew from Miami toward Venezuela. The pilot received a message from Venezuelan air-traffic control: the landing permit had been revoked, with no explanation. The aircraft turned around for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where the team spent 15 hours while diplomatic contacts worked to regain clearance.
“It was almost surreal,” Saavedra told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re trying to come in and help. We’re searchmen. We belong on the ground.”
The team finally arrived at a military base outside the coastal earthquake epicenter on June 30 — too late to find survivors in the rubble.
“If they had let us in sooner, we could have really helped save lives,” Saavedra said. “Imagine getting in the game when there’s four minutes left. No plans, no coaching, no help whatsoever. Just boom, go!”
Saavedra described pulling the dust-covered body of a woman from debris. She had shown signs of having clung to life for days in an air pocket, he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Steve Slepcevic, Strategic Response Partners’ chief executive, said he has responded to natural disasters in Haiti, Chile and Mexico over 35 years. “This is by far the worst I’ve ever experienced,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Once inside Venezuela, the team faced new obstacles. Saavedra said a National Guard soldier tried to impede their vehicle near the disaster epicenter and demanded “a donation” — a request Saavedra viewed as a bribe. The team placated the soldier with a bottle of water.
Other rescue teams reported similar experiences. Police and military officers set up checkpoints throughout the affected area, and some volunteer rescue workers said officers demanded bribes to let them pass. Hundreds of national guardsmen and police stood at checkpoints rather than helping search rubble, residents told the Wall Street Journal.
“Our country isn’t prepared for this. We have no one other than this government to blame,” said Junior Figueredo, a 23-year-old detective who waited to enter an outdoor morgue in La Guaira state to identify the bodies of four women in his family, including his mother and sister, who died when a 12-story state housing complex collapsed.
Looting accusations also emerged. Retiree Vayamin Delgado said police stole from her damaged home. “All they do is rob us, even in the midst of a tragedy,” she told the Wall Street Journal.
Rescue workers said they lost hours waiting for equipment and luggage at the overwhelmed Valencia airport, a two-hour drive from the disaster zone. Some said they were forced to take photographs with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, which she later posted on social media. Héctor Méndez, a veteran of Mexico’s Topos Azteca International Rescue Brigade, became incensed when a state news reporter asked him to offer kind words to Rodríguez. “I’m not a politician, I’m a rescue worker,” Méndez said. He told the Wall Street Journal he told the reporter “to go to hell.”
The disaster zone lacked centralized coordination. Rescue teams from the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and the United States that reached the area in the early days said they scrambled from neighborhood to neighborhood without phone service or translators. Roads around devastated Caribbean coastal towns were clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic, impeding first responders and the heavy machinery needed to move rubble.
In a rare news conference, Rodríguez rebuffed criticism of her government’s earthquake response as “media narratives to generate chaos.” She said her government acted swiftly and welcomed aid from more than 30 countries. On Saturday she awarded medals to more than 300 American rescue workers in an event broadcast on national television, thanking them. “Every time a plane landed with rescuers, it gave hope to the people of Venezuela,” Rodríguez said. She added that American rescue workers and Venezuelan armed forces members “were seen as one team.”
John Barrett, who leads the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, told reporters that Rodríguez’s government “has been fully compliant in terms of our requests to advance this massive humanitarian response.” An AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll released Friday found that two-thirds of Venezuelans rejected the government’s handling of the disaster. Rodríguez’s disapproval rating climbed to 63%.
Slepcevic said he was shocked by the quality of building construction he encountered. Plastic foam had been used as mortar filler between cement slabs, he said, and insufficient reinforcing steel made buildings collapse in ways that further complicated rescue work. Rescue efforts were slowed by the danger of cave-ins as crews tried to access tight spaces filled with debris.
“We recovered a lot of bodies,” Slepcevic told the Wall Street Journal. His lips quivered as he held back tears. “We didn’t get there in time.”