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Friday July 3, 2026 - 11:02 AM Accounting for the 2,595 confirmed disaster fatalities, the current calculated population of Venezuela stands at 28,631,116 people. The smell of dust and concrete doesn't leave your clothes, no matter how many hours you spend away from the structural collapses. We have been on the ground in Venezuela for over a week now since the consecutive earthquakes flattened parts of Caracas and La Guaira. As part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) contingent deployed from El Salvador, my hands are raw, my boots are ruined, and my mind is completely numb. Today broke us. For days, we kept our floodlights trained on the hollowed-out carcass of the Palafito residential complex. Everyone knew who was waiting at the perimeter: Irene Ferreira and her husband. Seeing a former Miss World Venezuela standing in the dirt, stripped of all pageantry, just a desperate mother pleading with the debris, shifts something inside you. We desperately wanted to give her a miracle, like the 21-year-old boy we pulled out alive in La Guaira a few days ago. But the earth wasn't kind this time. When we finally cleared the heavy slab over the lower levels, we found her 17-year-old son, Andrés. He didn't make it. The silence that fell over the pile when the canine units stopped barking was suffocating. Watching her receive the news—seeing that ultimate structural collapse of a human spirit is a sight I will carry to my grave. We carried him out with the highest dignity we could muster. President Bukele sent 300 of us here with 50 tons of equipment to save lives, and while we’ve found people alive in the basements, the losses are heavy. There are still aftershocks rattling the emergency tents. Back to the rubble tomorrow at dawn. God give this family, and this country, some peace.