The tragic death of the wife and two children of Argentine soccer player Lucas Trejo, following powerful earthquakes in Venezuela, was confirmed by his team on Sunday. Trejo’s family perished in the wake of the disaster, which left widespread devastation.
Lucas Trejo, who is part of Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira, a Venezuelan second-division soccer team, spent three harrowing days searching for his wife, Yanina, and children, Aaron and Ainhoa, amid the ruins before rescue workers recovered their remains. This heartbreaking news was reported by CNN. “Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira deeply mourns the irreparable loss of our player’s wife and children,” the team expressed in an Instagram post with a family photo, adding, “Peace to their souls and comfort for Lucas and all his loved ones,” in a post on X.
Trejo, aged 38, was present in Caracas for a training session when twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, struck on Wednesday evening. He immediately returned to his home in La Guaira, the area most severely impacted, only to face a “horrific scene,” as described by his brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles to CNN Espanol. “He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been,” Ardiles stated.
This catastrophe has claimed the lives of nearly 1,500 individuals, with tens of thousands more missing, Venezuelan authorities announced on Sunday.
Efforts to Find Survivors
During the weekend, a miraculous rescue saw a mother and her 9-month-old baby extricated from the debris of a fallen building in Venezuela by a U.S. search and rescue team. The Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 shared dramatic footage of its members pulling the woman to safety. Cheers erupted from onlookers as she emerged from the wreck. Another segment, distributed by the U.S. State Department, showed the baby being carefully removed from the ruins, swathed in blue fabric. Although the child’s face was obscured, crying sounds could be distinctly heard.
Despite the severe impact, reports from Venezuelans mention a limited presence of state-led rescue teams in the severely damaged zones. However, acting President Delcy Rodríguez assured that the Venezuelan government was implementing a comprehensive response strategy. Officials from Caracas stated on Saturday that approximately 200 individuals had been rescued, yet online databases indicate around 51,000 people remain unaccounted for.
In La Guaira, CBS News met a woman named Diana Sandrano, who is determined to continue searching for her missing brother indefinitely. “He deserves to live and have a future,” Sandrano declared, after tirelessly searching throughout the day.