MEXICO CITY (AP) — A father holds the hand of his daughter dressed as a fairy. A 24-year-old man in a pilot uniform stares proudly at the camera. A family embraces each other on a soccer field.
They are among the images posted by relatives within Venezuela and abroad desperately searching for their missing loved ones following two powerful, back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday evening.
Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said late Thursday that the death
toll had risen to around 235, with at least 4,300 people injured. The number of casualties is expected to climb after the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes that caused widespread damage and were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century.
With communication patchy, social media and online registries have become a crucial tool for many Venezuelans seeking information and resources beyond sparse government statistics. Independent online registries documenting up to 40,000 people missing far surpass the official government account.
While some rushed to search beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, others created digital flyers on WhatsApp, Facebook and X with their relatives’ details.
Among them was Vanesa Marcano, 31, who posted photos from Madrid of her uncle and aunt, who live in La Guaira state, north of the capital Caracas, which suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties.
Marcano posted the images in the hopes that they were only unreachable due to damaged communication lines. Her uncle’s daughter and his 7-year-old grandson were visiting from the United States and also are missing.
“It’s a feeling of impotence and uncertainty,” Marcano said by phone. “I know you must stay calm and focus on the actions you can take. But it’s very easy to fall into despair.”
Jhoyser Concalves, a Venezuelan from the northern coastal city Catia La Mar, was talking to his partner and her daughter just minutes before the shaking. It was the last he heard from them.
When the earthquake stopped, Concalves ran out of his house to their apartment building, where they lived on the sixth floor. There was only debris left and people desperately trying to rescue neighbors from the rubble.
Concalves posted a flyer reading “MISSING” on X and Facebook in a desperate attempt to find them.
“They are pulling people out of the building alive. So I still have hope that they are in there alive,” he said.
The search was complicated by the country's restrictions on social media and messaging platforms.
On Thursday, the U.N. human rights mission in Venezuela issued a statement calling on the government to lift local restrictions on social media and saying timely access to reliable information can save lives.
Sites including X and messaging app Signal were blocked in August 2024 by then-President Nicolás Maduro in an attempt to suppress communication among those who rejected his claim of victory in the presidential election. Former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez became the acting president in January after the U.S. captured and removed Maduro from power.
Shortly after the U.N.’s request Thursday, Venezuelans in the country were able to access X.
Outside the country, such sites have become even more important for many of the 8 million people who have migrated from Venezuela in recent years and were unable to check on their loved ones.
Elibel Tovar Lanas, 38, was planning to travel Saturday from Chile, where he has lived for 23 years, for the first visit in a decade with his 70-year-old father, who lives in Brazil but was in La Guaira for business. Lanas has not heard from his dad, Félix Ramón Tovar Hernández.
“I feel powerless because I don’t know how this is affecting him: the shock, the decisions he’s having to make, whether he is physically okay, or even whether he is still alive,” said Lanas, who registered his father on the website for the missing.
“Being in Chile makes it very difficult to get information, and everything we see feels confusing,” Lanas said via WhatsApp.
In Madrid, Marcano said she was trying to stay calm for the sake of her 1-year-old daughter.
“You keep hoping someone will organize a fundraiser or some kind of initiative where you can help,” Marcano said. “But the truth is, from far away, there is very little you can do.”
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Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.
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