00:00Now we are going back once more with our colleague, with our correspondent, Luis Alberto Matos.
00:07He is there and he is set to offer more updates on everything that is happening in these recovery actions
00:14that are taking place in the capital.
00:17Go ahead, Luis, we hear you.
00:19Yes, Ale, as I was telling you before, the recovery action continues here in this collapse that occurred in San
00:26Bernardino.
00:27I saw the firefighters take out the stressors.
00:30It seems they are getting ready or moving close to operations to bring someone out of the road.
00:35We, of course, don't have confirmation if that person is alive or not.
00:38As I was telling you, 11 people have already been rescued here from this collapse.
00:43And they, by then, have confirmation of three people that were still, that were showing signs of life and were
00:50still waiting to be rescued.
00:52And that's why they have not stopped.
00:53They have been working constantly, as quickly as possible, to be able to rescue these three people that remain trapped,
01:00that they know of.
01:01Because there is also information that there might be more people that are trapped inside this collapse.
01:09We have seen the emotions of the neighbors around us when they learned about the tragic news.
01:15Because, of course, we have seen the very emotional scenes here in this location.
01:20And also in the previous one, where we were, there is also an environmental collapse that occurred in this neighborhood.
01:26There were people that were close to the couple that, unfortunately, died during these two earthquakes that hit the Venezuela
01:34mission.
01:35The first one, 7.2 and the second one, 7.5.
01:37As you were saying, a state of emergency is in place.
01:40There is no classroom.
01:42There is no classroom to follow notice.
01:43There is no gas room to follow notice until all the recovery process is completed.
01:47All the security forces of the nation, all the different bodies of the Civil Guard, of all the different security
01:55organizations, are deployed, as was announced by the authorities.
01:58These are currently deployed, not only here, as you can see in the images, but also in all the areas
02:05where damage has been reported.
02:07All the people still remain on the streets.
02:10We have been having issues with the communication services.
02:13There are different collapses in terms of different services that have been affected its infrastructure and its ability to function
02:20properly due to these two powerful earthquakes.
02:24We have also information of different casualties, but there is still not a clear number, of course, that would be
02:33very difficult at these early hours of this rescue recovery, of this rescue stage that Venezuela is currently working on.
02:43As the acting president announced, the damage was extensive.
02:47The damage was important.
02:49It was not a weak earthquake.
02:51It was not something like life.
02:55The authorities have continuously reported that the situation is serious.
02:59It must be taken seriously.
03:01And they're calling the people to be mature about what is happening, to be responsible with their life and with
03:07the life of their loved ones, to follow the instructions that are being given by the authorities.
03:11And that's something we have witnessed so far while we have been moving around the city, the capital city of
03:19Caracas.
03:19People are respecting what the authorities have said.
03:22People are on the streets.
03:24People are on the sidewalks.
03:25People are gathering in the public squares, in the open spaces.
03:28We are gathering there to wait, to wait for everything to unfold.
03:34As you were saying, there have been reports of more than 20 aftershocks.
03:38Some of them have been felt they have not been very light, noble aftershocks that people do not perceive.
03:47There have been some that have been very powerful, some over 3.0 in the scale.
03:52So people are taking the measures of the seriousness of the situation, especially the people that have experienced that very
04:01closely, that they saw their neighbors' homes, their own homes, their families' homes collapse or suffer serious damage.
04:08Walking, as we were walking around, there were buildings that did not collapse, but they suffered damage to their facade.
04:16We even saw a building that the walls of the first two-story apartments were completely off.
04:21We could see from the street, we could see into the apartment, into the bathroom, into the bedroom of those
04:26apartment buildings because they completely lost the walls that protected that area of that building.
04:31We have seen numerous more and less serious damage.
04:36So when you drive around the city, you'll see there's lots of buildings that have, like, small cracks.
04:43There's a small robot lying on the ground because it fell from the building, of course, from the structure.
04:49But we have also seen some partial damage.
04:53And the report we're also getting that is even more serious when you move to the west.
04:57We have seen images coming from Katia Lamar where there is very serious destruction happening there.
05:03Very, lots of homes of different infrastructure have been severely damaged.
05:08And the same happens as we go further forward into west and we get closer to the epicenter that, as
05:14we recall, was near Montalban in Carabobo.
05:18That's roughly between 150 to 200 kilometers from where we are standing right now here in the capital district.
05:24All the people continue to be respectful of the authorities.
05:27We have seen, as you see in the back, there is a clear division.
05:30People are staying safe here on this side of the sidewalk, while the authorities are working hard on the other
05:36side, on this case, on this partial collapse that happened here in San Bernardino, San Bernardino, in the capital district.
05:45As we were saying, just a reminder, 11 people have been rescued.
05:49We're continuing to try to save three people that reported signs of life.
05:53We saw the firefighters here, the truck that is right behind me.
05:58They had stressors on top of it.
06:01And we saw the firefighters like 10 minutes ago, five minutes ago, take the stressors out to bring them inside.
06:06So I'm guessing they're getting close to being able to bring some of those people out.
06:12We still don't know the condition.
06:13In the other collapse that we were before coming here, we were able to witness how they were able to
06:19rescue a woman that had sustained injuries due to the collapse.
06:23But we were also told that a couple had died in that collapse.
06:26The boyfriend and girlfriend and the woman that was able to be rescued from the building was the mother of
06:34the girl, the mother-in-law of the boyfriend.
06:38But this is the situation that we're seeing on the street.
06:40What is important now is that calm is prevailing.
06:44People are doing, everyone is doing their part.
06:47The citizenry is following the instructions to be on the streets, to be in open spaces, in safe spaces, to
06:54take care of themselves, to take care of themselves.
06:56Families and their neighbors, the authorities are doing their part as well, working tirelessly, without stop.
07:02We have seen continuous movement from the sides of the authorities, of the police, the firefighters, the civil guards that
07:08have come and gone from this area.
07:10Just like 20 minutes ago, another truck arrived, bringing more reinforcement to speed up the work.
07:16And this is also part of the call that was made by the authorities, calling on the people to come
07:21together in this moment,
07:22to be united, a united people to be able to face the challenges that are being put in front of
07:28the Venezuelan people.
07:29We recall that this situation is also being, in a way, felt also in other areas of the continent, in
07:36Colombia, in different Korean nations.
07:38The powerful earthquake was felt, the reason why it was so powerful and it was so powerfully felt by pretty
07:46much every state of the Venezuelan nation,
07:49felt the earthquake one way and another, especially the ones closer to the west,
07:54is because it was a very shallow one, it was less than 13 kilometers deep.
07:58And that triggered that it was strongly perceived, it was felt most strongly on the surface,
08:04and that also triggers the damage that it makes to the infrastructure, the buildings, was higher.
08:10We have seen images of the highways near the epicenter, the highways that have been completely cut off and broken
08:16due to the power of that earthquake.
08:19Here in this area, the civil guard, the authorities continue to work, they are first going little by little.
08:26So they are being, they are being, they are going little by little, securing as much as possible every step
08:33of the way,
08:34securing as they go deep into the global or creating, how they refer to it, creating chambers and putting protections
08:40on those chambers
08:41so that in the case of an aftershock or some serious movement comes, it doesn't cave anymore.
08:48And that way is a way to preserve not only the life of the people that are trapped,
08:51but also the life of the people carrying out these important task of search and rescue.
08:57This information we're getting right now here, we are going to try to keep on moving around
09:02so that we can show to the audience how Venezuela is experiencing this,
09:06but also more importantly how Venezuela is fighting this,
09:09and we'll surely bounce back and recover from this tragic moment that happened
09:13in just minutes past 6 p.m. Karakas time, when these two powerful earthquakes, 7.2, the first one,
09:18and right behind it, very quickly, there was no much difference between one and the other.
09:22A second one, 7.5, caused all this damage that we see here,
09:26and all the damage that we have been able to see on different sources of video
09:29in other states, in other areas of the country.
09:35Thank you, thank you, Luisi, very much for being our eyes at this hour of so much promotion
09:41in Karakas, in the San Bernardino neighborhood, as you mentioned,
09:46that there was this building collapse, and now rescue teams are working tirelessly
09:51to rescue and to save lives as well, in the midst of so much uncertainty
09:57of what the upcoming hours are going to evolve because of the huge tremor
10:03that the capital, Karakas, felt in the early hours of this afternoon after 6 p.m.
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