More than a week after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, rescue workers pulled a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed shopping centre on Thursday.
"Today we celebrate the life of Hernan Gil," acting President Delcy Rodriguez wrote on X alongside a video of the rescue. She thanked the national and international emergency services "who have used their bodies, their time and their souls for this mission."
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, who together with Chile, the United States, Portugal, Mexico and Costa Rica sent teams to help with the rescue, hailed Gil's rescue as a "miracle" and thanked God for making it possible.
"We have finally managed to rescue Hernan," he wrote in capital letters on X.
The rescue is considered extraordinary, as disaster experts regard the first 72 hours after a major earthquake as the critical window for finding survivors. Beyond that period, experience shows that the chances of survival for people trapped beneath rubble decline sharply.
Gil lodged 9 metres under a mall
Hernan Alberto Gil was reportedly working as a security guard at the Galerias Playa Grande shopping centre in the coastal city of Maiquetia when the building collapsed in the earthquakes on June 24.
According to rescue workers, he was around 9 metres under the rubble. Several days ago, people had already managed to make contact with him and supply him with water and other vital aid through a hose.
The recovery became a race against time. Due to the unstable building structure, aftershocks and the risk of further collapse, emergency services had to change their strategy several times and ultimately create a new access route to the buried man.
Gil was finally carried out of the rubble on a stretcher to applause from emergency services and onlookers, as could be seen in videos.
Despite the slim odds of finding more victims alive, emergency services are continuing their search for further survivors. According to the latest official figures, at least 2,295 people have now been killed in the earthquakes and more than 11,000 have been injured.
