Skip linksSkip to Contentplay Live Sign upShow navigation menuNavigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfricaAsiaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle EastExplainedSportOpinionVideoMoreShow more sectionsFeaturesEconomyHuman RightsClimate CrisisInvestigationsInteractivesIn PicturesScience & TechnologyPodcastsTravelSponsored Contentplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upDemolition complicates the search for Venezuela's earthquake deadVenezuela has begun tearing down unstable buildings after its deadly earthquakes. But what is the cost to survivors?A toppled tower from the OPPE 27 housing complex in Caraballeda, La Guaira, sits flattened after the June earthquakes [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]A toppled tower from the OPPE 27 housing complex in Caraballeda, La Guaira, sits flattened after the June earthquakes [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]By Catherine EllisPublished On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026SaveClick here to share on social mediashare-nodesSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoLa Guaira, Venezuela – Glenda Viloria does not remember the exact number of children’s bodies she has seen in the past few weeks at the morgue in La Guaira, Venezuela. But she remembers their faces — at least those that were still recognisable.Yet none of them were her three-year-old nephew, Mateo.So far, Viloria has recovered the bodies of six family members, including her mother and sister. They lived in OPPE 27, a high-rise government housing complex in the coastal town of Caraballeda.The four apartment blocks that comprised OPPE 27 were among the nearly 190 buildings that collapsed on June 24, when a pair of twin earthquakes struck Venezuela. Hundreds of other structures were damaged, without hope of repair.Six weeks later, efforts are ongoing to clear the destruction. On July 30, Venezuela demolished a tower in a housing complex in Catia La Mar, La Guaira, after experts declared it at risk of collapse.It was the first building to be brought down in a controlled explosion, with more demolitions expected.But the decision to level buildings and clear wreckage has been controversial, particularly for survivors like Viloria, still searching for the bodies of their loved ones. Viloria remains determined to find her late sister's toddler."I promised I was not going to rest until I found her son, Mateo,” she said.Until last year, Viloria had also lived in OPPE 27, and she loved Mateo as if he were her own child. Even after moving away, she returned regularly to take care of him. "We were a very beautiful and close-knit family," she explained.Viloria sleeps in a small tent next to the site that was once OPPE 27. Heavy-duty excavators have rumbled past in recent weeks, clearing piles of crushed concrete and twisted metal.The push to clear the site has left Viloria with difficult decisions. When she and other volunteers found her mother’s body, it was trapped beneath concrete columns inside a narrow tunnel they could barely access."I had to give the order for my mother’s body to be cut apart. They had to do it with a saw. The body was already decomposing and was about to burst," she said. "This is something I truly can never forget."Now, all that remains of her family's building is a patch of dusty ground. There is no physical trace of the home where they once lived. Still, Viloria said she cannot leave."I am not going to rest," she said. "Because that boy was like a son to me."Glenda Viloria walks through the remains of OPPE 27, a housing project that saw its four towers collapse during the June 24 earthquakes [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]Glenda Viloria walks through the remains of OPPE 27, a housing project that saw its four towers collapse during the June 24 earthquakes [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]An emptier La GuairaAlong parts of La Guaira, a state known for its beaches and hotels, the disaster zone has grown quieter.The crowds that gathered in the aftermath of the earthquakes have thinned. Survivors have moved to shelters, international rescue teams have departed, and aid deliveries have slowed.Froylan Gerardo Robles, the president of Search and Rescue Mexico, a civil society organisation specialising in disaster response, has noticed the increasingly empty landscape.His team arrived in La Guaira immediately after the earthquakes and returned in late July to continue work."On the first mission, it was like walking into a horror movie from the moment we came here," Robles told Al Jazeera. "But this week, we went out with another rescue team to look at another site, and there isn't even a building there any more."As of Monday, the Venezuelan government has reported at least 6,125 killed in the earthquakes.That statistic, however, is believed to be an undercount. The missing are still numbered in the thousands, according to crowdsourcing websites.Recovering bodies is now the main concern for Robles and his team. When state civil protection teams end their work in the evening, his rescue team continues the search through the night, alongside families and volunteers."When machinery reaches a concrete slab, it is lifted carefully while teams check underneath for bodies," Robles said."Once we think a body has been located, the operation stops. Then, everything is done completely by hand. A team wearing full personal protective equipment goes in to recover and extract it."That process was under way on a stifling August afternoon when Al Jazeera visited OPPE 33, another government housing project.A wooden stick and red blanket marked the site where a decomposed body had been found. Two men wearing masks and white forensic suits carried the remains to a makeshift hut for identification.Froylan Gerardo Robles, the president of Search and Rescue Mexico, says the landscape of La Guaira has changed [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]Froylan Gerardo Robles, the president of Search and Rescue Mexico, says the landscape of La Guaira has changed [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]Demolition and rebuildingLev
