Hopes were fading Monday that survivors might still be found from the powerful twin earthquakes that rocked Venezuela, even as more international teams arrived to boost desperate search efforts.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.A critical 72-hour window for rescuing people trapped beneath collapsed buildings has now passed, after a weekend that saw glimmers of hope for local residents and foreign responders scouring the rubble — including a father and his son pulled out alive after four days.The death toll has risen to 1,450 people, but tens of thousands remain unaccounted for amid growing criticism of the government’s response and limited access to heavy equipment in the hardest-hit state La Guaira.Rescue workers carry a man rescued from the rubble Sunday of a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira.Matias Delacroix / APSome 3,150 were also injured and 12,721 people displaced, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said Sunday, adding that time was running out to rescue those still trapped beneath mountains of debris.“We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, to their residences can stay,” Rodriguez said in a televised address.The first 48 to 72 hours after a natural disaster are crucial to rescue efforts, though survival can be extended if people have access to food and water, according to international aid agencies.
In a televised address on Sunday, interim President Delcy Rodríguez said that search-and-rescue operations would continue after 33 people had been found over the weekend.“We recovered people alive today,” she said.“Therefore, the rescue operations will not be suspended.”Victim search teams amid debris of a demolished building after an earthquake, in La Guaira, Venezuela, on Saturday.Jesu...