While international rescue teams search for people in the rubble, volunteers provide food, medicine and children. Tens of thousands are still missing.
Jul 2, 2026, 5:28 amJul 2, 2026, 5:28 am
Grief and hopelessness: A woman in La Guaira in the rubble after the devastating earthquake.Image: AP/Keystone
«They say they help. But in reality they only come to take photos,” says Elisabeth angrily, referring to the Venezuelan officials and military. On site, the police would just stare at their cell phones instead of helping out.
Videos are circulating on social media of desperate aid workers in Venezuela screaming and begging soldiers and other officials to provide rescue machinery and other aid. Many of them dig through the rubble with their bare hands.
When Elisabeth drove from the capital Caracas to La Guaira, which is usually 40 minutes away, last weekend, they didn’t even want to let her go to the region. “We sat in the car for a total of four hours,” says the entrepreneur on the phone. The coastal city is the most affected region after last Wednesday’s earthquake. While she was still on the way, she started handing out cookies and water.
Elisabeth and her husband searched for relatives – in vain. It wasn’t until three days later that she found out that her brother-in-law’s brother and his wife were still alive. “You were lucky,” she says.
They had to watch their house collapse
The couple was on their way to fill up their car when the first 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the ground in Venezuela. “They stood in front of their residential building and had to watch it collapse,” said the Venezuelan. The couple’s son was in the apartment at the time.
Elisabeth still doesn’t know whether several relatives are still alive. But she doesn’t want to go back to La Guaira. “The bodies are piling up,” she says. Only cloths were placed over them. The relief workers could hardly keep up with the body bags. As of Wednesday, nearly 2,000 deaths had been reported in Venezuela. Several tens of thousands of people are still missing.
The chances of rescuing survivors are now slim, “since the crucial 72-hour deadline after the disaster has already been exceeded,” as the Foreign Ministry (EDA) wrote on request. For this reason, the Swiss rescue chain traveled back home on Wednesday evening local time. The 80 experts were among the first non-Latin American teams to reach the devastated areas.
People in La Guaira in the middle of their destroyed city after the devastating earthquake.Image: EPA/Keystone
“It was a difficult mission,” says team leader Sebastian Eugster in an interview with “Switzerland Today”. On the one hand, because the rescuers were unable to rescue anyone alive in the disaster area. On the other hand, because of the heat. This contributed to the high number of deaths, as Eugster says: “It is very hot here. “Imagine how badly this will affect the people buried.”
The fact that it was not possible to rescue those buried alive affected the mood in the team. “Saving lives is our mandate,” says the team leader. Spending hours rescuing a person after a sign of life and then having to discover death in the end is depressing. But: “We gave everything. We did everything we could influence and always kept hope until the end,” said Eugster.
After their departure, Swiss aid continues in La Guaira. A team from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Corps (SHA) is expected to arrive at the end of the week. “This is about securing the basic needs of survivors in the coming weeks, especially when it comes to access to drinking water and sanitary facilities,” said the FDFA.
Just dirt and no fridges
This help is desperately needed. «La Guaira is a terrible sight at the moment. It looks like a war zone,” says Elisabeth. Added to this is the chaos. Everything is dirty. Several food deliveries had to be thrown away because they did not reach a hungry person in time. “There is no electricity in La Guaira, so there are no refrigerators either,” explains Elisabeth.
AP/Grief and despair in Venezuela.Image: AP/Keystone
She decided to help in her hometown, Caracas. Every day she cooks for 40 people – pasta with meat, lentils, rice, sardines – and brings the pre-packaged portions to the nearby “Dr. Jesús Yerana» Hospital. Thanks to a WhatsApp group, Elisabeth knows how much to cook and where to take the food.
There are a number of such groups under the title “Voluntary Helpers”: from “Food Distribution” and “Translators” to “Psychological Support” and “Home Inspections” to “Child Care”. Each group has several hundred members.
Coffins pile up in La Guaira after the quake.Image: EPA/Keystone
Elisabeth has a problem with children, especially when it comes to children. “There are so many children who are alone,” she says. In addition to the trauma, injuries and existential fears they have experienced, they are also at risk of being kidnapped.
It is precisely for this case that child protection centers are being set up locally, as Gabriel Vockel from Unicef tells “Switzerland Today”. He lives with his family in Caracas. It is important that children also have places in disaster areas “where they can simply be children”. Specifically, this means, on the one hand, games, care and entertainment. But also seemingly banal precautions such as ensuring the power supply for safe, illuminated toilets and showers where no one can gain unauthorized access.
However, most of the children who are currently alone are not yet referred to as orphans. The task now is “to bring the children back together with their families as quickly as possible.” (schweiztoday.ch)