Venezuelans are assessing the vast scale of their losses 12 days after powerful twin earthquakes killed at least 3,535 people, injured many more and left behind immense destruction.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.On Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered in the cities of Caracas and Maracaibo to hold vigils in the name of those who have died and the tens of thousands who remain missing.At the Central University of Caracas, attendees lit up white candles and placed them on the ground, creating the shape of the South American nation.Vigils like this have been taking place across the country over the past week, as a collective sense of grief begins to settle in after search-and-rescue efforts transitioned from saving trapped survivors to retrieving bodies from the rubble.
Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared seven days of “national mourning” on Tuesday.That grief is now crossing borders as Venezuelans abroad demand answers and push to find their missing loved ones.Two cousins, one in Spain and another in Orlando, Florida, have been using social media to request help finding their grandparents, Pedro Veloz Medina and Alejandrina Ramírez de Veloz, who lived in a seven-story building in the hard-hit town of Caraballeda.
Buildings destroyed following twin earthquakes in Caraballeda, Venezuela, on June 29.Miguel Medina / AFP via Getty ImagesValeria Veloz, who lives in Spain, said on Instagram that the family is looking for a crane and other heavy machinery after international rescue workers who assessed the damage of the collapsed building told them they would need to lift 10 large plates of concrete to try to find their grandparents.Speaking to NBC News from Orlando, Pedro Veloz said that “without the crane, how the building collapsed, it will be impossible to be able to move everything as we should.”Ryan Ash, a rescuer from the Pennsylvania-based organization Chazak Rescue...