With cities reduced to rubble, more than 1400 people dead and 50,000 still missing and the gut-punch of economic ruin, hope is in short supply in Venezuela.
Yet remarkable stories of survival are offering a boost to the nation after two earthquakes devastated the country on Wednesday local time.
After 32 hours stuck under debris, an 18-day-old baby was found alive and held aloft to cheers and applause in La Guaira, the hardest-hit city in the quakes.
The infant, wrapped in a quilt, was carefully passed from person to person before being reunited with his tearful father.
Ninety minutes later, the child’s mother was also pulled from the rubble alive.
According to Andreina Quintero, who filmed the video, the mother was told in hospital that she saved her baby’s life by covering him when the earthquake struck.
It was just one of the many survival stories that acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who replaced the ousted Nicolas Maduro, said “bring us joy” after the disaster.
Other footage showed a 4-year-old boy being rescued in La Guaira after being trapped for 24 hours after the collapse of his apartment block.
Emergency workers then pulled his mother and father from the wreckage before they were reunited with their son.
More than 250 buildings collapsed after the “doublet” – a set of earthquakes that occur one after the other – of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude struck within 39 seconds of each other, leaving thousands trapped under rubble.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said more than 50,000 people were missing as time was running out on the crucial “golden window” to save the trapped.
On Saturday, the BBC reported that the death toll had risen to 1430, with 3238 injured, according to top legislator Jorge Rodriguez, speaking on state TV.
Rescue teams and humanitarian aid have been dispatched from all over the world, including Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Cuba and the United States as well as the UN.
A United Kingdom flight carrying British search and rescue teams, dogs and drones left RAF Brize Norton for Venezuela on Friday. Led by a team from Merseyside Fire and Rescue, the flight is carrying specialists from 14 fire services.
However, frustration mounted at the uneven pace of relief in some of the hardest-hit areas including La Guaira, just north of the capital, Caracas, where residents and volunteers were still digging through rubble by hand amid shortages of heavy equipment and limited government response.
Residents in Caracas jeered the interim leader during her visit to a devastated neighbourhood.
One victim, Marjosly Salazar, 40, lost her 16-year-old daughter in the quake, and her baby is missing.
“I am looking for my little Gael ... he was only 5 months old,” she said.
“Please, we need support here. We need machinery to start lifting the columns. We haven’t seen any government officials here, none at all.”
Hospitals among hundreds of destroyed buildings
Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, including hospitals, as the injured are being treated in makeshift medical facilities.
King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were “deeply saddened” by the devastation, expressing their “profound sympathy” for the victims.
A UN report estimated direct damage from the two quakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, at about US$6.7 billion ($11.8b). The second quake was Venezuela’s most powerful in more than a century.
The quakes came after the oil-rich country endured more than a decade of economic collapse. The crisis has hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.
The country is still in a fragile transition six months after the US abducted Maduro on President Donald Trump’s orders.
The US Treasury Department has announced it would temporarily lift sanctions to allow the Government to conduct financial transactions related to earthquake relief.
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