He’s out! Portuguese rescue team extracts man trapped over week under rubble in Venezuela

He’s out! The Portuguese FOCON (joint operation force) working around the clock in Venezuela, desperate to extract a man trapped under the rubble of a collapsed shopping centre for over a week since the devastating ‘double-tap’ earthquakes, have finally done it. They have extracted Hernán Gil Flores, 43 – and because of their heroic tenacity, he has not been left to die, as so many others like him will have done by now.

President of ANEPC (the national civil protection authority) José Manuel Moura tells CNN Portugal today that the rescue was effected “after several teams had abandoned” Flores, considering the complexity of the operation required to reach him (two storeys down) was ‘just too much’.

Flores was in a “very difficult situation for extraction”, admits Moura. But that did not see the team give up. They worked relentlessly, carefully, methodically – with the help of paramedics – for three long days and nights.

Images from ANEPC Facebook page

Floers had to be hydrated, fed, medicated via tubing fed through the shards of cement and twisted steel down to him. He had been waiting for this, alone, almost unable to move, for five days before the Portuguese team arrived at the scene, in Catia La Mar, in the state of La Guaira. He knew, and they knew, they were Gil’s only hope.

Emotions now that Flores (a security guard at the shopping centre) is freed and on his way to hospital are of absolute delight/ happiness, a sense of ‘mission accomplished’- but recordings coming in from Venezuela show the team is now focused on seeing if there is anyone else they can help.

Time has now reached that ‘it’s-almost-too-late-to-hope’ phase. It has been eight days since the earthquakes brought thousands of buildings crashing down, and took thousands of lives with them.

The official death toll stands at over 2,295, but tens of thousands of people are still ‘missing’.

Of Portuguese nationals and family members killed there appear, so far, to be 79, of which as many as 14 were children.

sources: CNN Portugal/ Facebook ANEPC Venezuela

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.