00:00In La Guayra, the hardest hit area by the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24th,
00:06search and rescue operations carried out by national and international teams along with local community members continue.
00:13Our correspondent Belen de los Santos, she is there and has more details for us.
00:17Go ahead, Belen, we hear you.
00:22Hello, studios. We continue covering the ongoing rescue efforts here in La Guayra.
00:27It's been six days since the twin earthquakes that shook Venezuela.
00:32And we've been talking about the international efforts to come here and help with the efforts in Venezuela from 24
00:39nations at least that are working right now.
00:42And in this case, we are joined by Damien Van from Barbados, from the team that has come from Barbados
00:49here to work in La Guayra.
00:51First of all, thank you so much for your effort. And how has the general work been since you got
00:56here?
00:57Yes, thank you. So far, it has been tough.
01:01We could appreciate that most of the buildings involved are high-rise buildings.
01:07So the construction, we find it a bit difficult to move it around so that we can execute the searches
01:14as best as we could.
01:16But the search goes on. Right now, we are here at LaGuardia.
01:21It is alleged that about 40 children are still unaccounted for in this structure behind us.
01:28And we are just waiting for the heavy equipment to remove some of the heavy rubble so that we can
01:33go in and continue our search.
01:36Now, international solidarity has always been so important in the Caribbean.
01:41Why take the decision of coming here, regrouping and coming to Venezuela to help with this twin earthquakes?
01:48Well, we could appreciate that in the Caribbean, we are also prone to natural disasters as well.
01:55And usually, if we are impacted, the international community helps us too.
02:00So we saw this as an opportunity for us to, as small as we are, to come down to Venezuela
02:06and also make our assistance.
02:08Because it goes both ways. And we wanted to show our solidarity with Venezuela at this time.
02:14We have been seeing so much of community effort as well.
02:19We are seeing the Venezuelan government organizations, the international delegations, and the people from the community who are coming here
02:26and working on what is also their own properties, their family members.
02:31How are you living through that community effort in the face of this tragic incident of the twin earthquakes?
02:38Well, the community, they have been a big help.
02:42Some people have translation, because we could appreciate we are coming from an English-speaking country.
02:47But more so, they are showing resilience.
02:51They are showing the need to continue searching for their loved ones.
02:54And we are here to support that.
02:56At no point in time during the exercise have we ever given up hope that we could find their loved
03:01ones.
03:02And as long as we are here, we will continue to support them in that effort.
03:07Thank you so much for joining us here in Tell Us For English.
03:10We continue to go over these international efforts, a communal effort, as we were saying, in the hardest-hit state
03:18by the twin earthquakes.
03:19The works are ongoing to this day, and we continue reporting here in Tell Us For English.
03:29Thank you, Belen, for your report, for this contact at this hour.
03:34We were speaking to a correspondent, Belen de Los Santos.
03:37She is in La Guayre state in the midst of this catastrophe that is being left by the people of
03:41Venezuela.
