Star Metro - Rescuers battle to unearth Venezuelan man eight days after quakes

An international rescue team inched closer to Hernan Gil, a security guard buried inside his booth under the seven-story building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a coastal area almost entirely razed to the ground in the June 24 catastrophe.

"This is truly a miracle," Gil's wife Gusbimar Gonzalez told AFP.

"I'm completely amazed because it's the first time I've seen so many countries come together like this to save a single person," she said.

Rescue teams from seven countries -- Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico -- have been working around-the-clock over the past three days to reach him.

They were almost one meter (three feet) from his position overnight, rescuers told AFP, but working carefully to avoid the further collapse of nearby structures damaged in the quakes.

"This is a rather complicated structure to access," Cristian Vera, the leader of the Chilean rescue team told AFP. "It wasn't easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located."

Though hopes rose for one man's rescue, Venezuela faces a disaster that has left many without shelter and desperately short on food. In addition to the dead, tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for.

Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez declared seven days of mourning, saying the country's "soul is torn apart by the human losses."

The majority of collapsed buildings in the hardest-hit city of La Guaira, just north of Caracas, have been marked with the letter 'D' for 'deceased' -- a sign they had been searched with no signs of life found.

"Time isn't wasted in a place where there is no expectation of recovering people alive," said Javier Rodes, the coordinator of a Spanish rescue team whose sniffer dog Nala searched in vain through the rubble for traces of life.

There have been miracle survivors, such as a three-year-old boy found alive Tuesday, six days after Venezuela's most powerful quake in over a century.

But experts say trapped victims are unlikely to survive more than 72 hours.

"No one is coming out of here, alive or dead," said Jose Rafael, standing among the ruins where his son is missing in the town of Caraballeda in La Guaira state.

Venezuela's National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Wednesday that the number of deaths had risen to 2,295, and more than 11,000 people were injured.

He said almost 13,000 people had been left homeless.

- A fight for food -

The United Nations estimates 50,000 people are missing.

The two powerful quakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, shattered entire neighborhoods in oil-rich Venezuela, which has suffered decades of economic crisis that devastated infrastructure and health services.

The country is in a fragile transition six months after the United States ousted leader Nicolas Maduro, and lives under constant pressure from Washington for access to Venezuela's oil and other natural resources.

The United States has around 2,000 personnel assisting in the response, General Francis Donovan, the head of US Southern Command, told journalists Wednesday.

International rescue teams arrived from around the globe to dig out survivors but locals are furious at the absence of the state in the aftermath of the disaster.

With daily life in ruins, the focus is now shifting to survival. Many are homeless and food and water are becoming scarce.

"They give out supplies here, but sometimes people nearly kill each other for food... It's like a cockfight," Daniela Armas, 18, a vendor in La Guaira, said after waiting to get food at an emergency shelter.

There have been widespread reports of theft. On Wednesday, four police officers were arrested after being caught by residents stealing valuables from the rubble.

"The situation is quite critical," said Lia Poggio, head of mission in Venezuela for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Queues for aid are growing longer by the day, with many surviving on the goodwill of volunteers and donations from fellow citizens.

"Here, we were receiving nothing until last night when they started bringing water," said 56-year-old Fatima Berroteran, who has been sleeping with her family in a parking lot since their home in a high-rise complex in La Guaira collapsed.

The World Food Programme on Tuesday appealed for $50 million to feed some 500,000 people for three months in Venezuela.

- Risk of disease -

Fears of disease outbreaks were also rising.

World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said health services in Venezuela were under "extreme pressure."

"There's an increased risk now of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases" such as measles and diphtheria, due to low pre-earthquake vaccination coverage, he said.

The quakes likely damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings, according to a preliminary assessment of satellite data published by NASA.

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S.Morin--SMC