An 11-year-old boy named Moises was pulled alive from beneath about 10 feet of rubble in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, on June 28. A Colombian rescue team dug him out carefully over six hours. But this one rescue stands against a much larger disaster: the earthquakes have killed more than 1,400 people, with thousands still missing, according to Reuters.

Moises was one of two boys saved from the wreckage, per BBC reporting. In all, thirty-three people have been pulled from collapsed buildings since the earthquakes struck. That's good news for those thirty-three families. But set against the thousands still reported missing in La Guaira, it shows how much work remains.

Help From Other Countries

Countries in the region are sending help, though it's arriving unevenly. A team from the Dominican Republic was among the first to arrive in La Guaira right after the quakes, Reuters reported. A U.S. rescue team pulled a father and son from rubble four days later. This matters because survival chances drop sharply after three days trapped in wreckage, though they don't disappear entirely if people are trapped in air pockets created by how buildings collapsed, AP News reported.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez called in the army to help run emergency operations in La Guaira. This shows that the military is taking on much of the coordination work, not just civilian emergency services, according to KVCR/NPR.

Why This Area Was So Vulnerable

This is one of the deadliest earthquakes the Western Hemisphere has seen in recent decades. La Guaira is squeezed between the Caribbean Sea and a mountain range, sitting on fault lines where the earth's plates press against each other. Most buildings in the area are old and not well maintained—years of economic trouble mean money for repairs dried up long ago. When strong earthquakes hit, these buildings collapse easily. The tight geography, the number of people living close together, and weak buildings all make rescue work slower and harder.

Countries helping Venezuela is notable because they often disagree. Colombia and the Dominican Republic usually stay distant from Venezuela over political disputes. The U.S. is especially complicated: it has sanctions against Venezuela and no normal relations with its government. Yet when disaster strikes, rescue teams work through back-channel agreements to coordinate their efforts. That's how serious the emergency is.

Finding Moises alive after more than three days buried changed how rescuers think about the operation. When people are found alive days after collapse, it tells commanders that people might still be alive deeper in the wreckage. They push harder and longer, even when workers are tired and resources are stretched.

The gap between thirty-three found and thousands missing is the number that matters most right now. After four days trapped in wreckage, survival odds fall steeply. In the coming days, rescue teams will shift from trying to pull people alive—rescue work—to recovering bodies. That shift changes everything: different equipment, different pace, different methods. Whether the international teams already there can handle that shift, or whether more specialists need to arrive, will become clear soon.