Venezuelans accuse government of negligence over earthquake response | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:02The scale of the destruction across La
2. 0:04Guaira is numbing.
3. 0:06Two massive earthquakes a few seconds
4. 0:08apart have left a bustling coastal town
5. 0:11in ruins.
6. 0:13Any country in the world would struggle
7. 0:15to know where to start with responding
8. 0:18to such a brutal disaster.
9. 0:21But from all accounts, the Venezuelan
10. 0:23government has failed to do even the
11. 0:25bare minimum.
12. 0:29By the side of the main road at wreckage
13. 0:31of a 12-story government-owned building,
14. 0:34heavy machines are now involved in the
15. 0:36operation.
16. 0:39But for the first 2 days, it was just
17. 0:41locals trying to do what a government
18. 0:44should have been doing.
19. 0:46Even now, most of the people here are
20. 0:48not professionals. They're volunteers or
21. 0:50families searching for their loved ones.
22. 0:55Rafael Gomez tells us he's here looking
23. 0:59for his cousin.
24. 1:02Digging through the concrete blocks is a
25. 1:04painstaking process.
26. 1:07>> You can see that rescue efforts are
27. 1:09going on here with full intensity with
28. 1:11whatever equipment is available. That's
29. 1:13because yesterday they managed to pull
30. 1:16out a few people from under this rubble
31. 1:18alive. About an hour ago, they heard a
32. 1:20dog barking and they were able to pull
33. 1:22the dog out. Just as we were walking
34. 1:25here, they'd asked for pin-drop silence,
35. 1:26so everybody kept quiet because they
36. 1:29were trying to listen to see if they
37. 1:31could hear human voices from underneath.
38. 1:33Now, some people have told us that they
39. 1:35believe they could hear some voices, and
40. 1:37that's why now they've resumed this
41. 1:38operation in full strength hoping that
42. 1:41they might still find somebody alive.
43. 1:46>> We saw this happen a few times.
44. 1:48Every time they drilled through a layer
45. 1:50of concrete, the street was asked to go
46. 1:52silent.
47. 1:55Rescuers clambered down into the gap
48. 1:58looking for survivors, listening hard.
49. 2:01After a few minutes, work resumed.
50. 2:04And as they peeled away the debris, the
51. 2:06smell of dead bodies here became
52. 2:08stronger.
53. 2:10Huddled in a corner are families of
54. 2:12those who were in the building when it
55. 2:14collapsed.
56. 2:18Claudio Cedeño's wife, Clara, is under
57. 2:21the rubble.
58. 2:24Miguel Oscar Nuñez is comforted by a
59. 2:27friend.
60. 2:29His only child, 34-year-old son Angel,
61. 2:32lived in the building.
62. 2:36>> I am here because my son is under the
63. 2:38rubble.
64. 2:39Like my son, there are hundreds of
65. 2:42others trapped here.
66. 2:44We need more support from authorities
67. 2:47because what's being done just isn't
68. 2:50enough. It's possible that the
69. 2:52earthquake hasn't killed my son, but
70. 2:54negligence will of not getting help in
71. 2:57time.
72. 2:59>> Further north, the devastation looms
73. 3:02ominously.
74. 3:03>> We were driving down this road and we
75. 3:05came across these two tall buildings
76. 3:07which completely collapsed. People who
77. 3:09live here tell us that they were 16
78. 3:11stories high. They estimate that
79. 3:14hundreds of people would have died in
80. 3:16there, but there are no official numbers
81. 3:18as of now. These are people who live
82. 3:20here, by the way. You can see that
83. 3:21they're repairing
84. 3:23or trying to salvage trying to clear the
85. 3:26debris of their homes. And they've been
86. 3:28telling us that the earthquake occurred
87. 3:30on Wednesday, but the first official
88. 3:32rescue teams only came here on Friday.
89. 3:34They were firemen who didn't have enough
90. 3:37machinery to try to pull people out. And
91. 3:39so they've described how they were
92. 3:41hearing screams and shouts from people
93. 3:44who were trapped inside. And in one
94. 3:46case, they actually clambered up and
95. 3:49locals here were able to pull one woman
96. 3:52out alive.
97. 3:53>> You could see the lady's hand.
98. 3:55>> So, you were able to pull her out?
99. 3:56>> Juan Avendano showed me a video of how
100. 3:59they spotted a woman who was trapped
101. 4:02under the rubble.
102. 4:06In the video, you can see him handing
103. 4:07her a bottle of water.
104. 4:09"Are you able to hold it? Speak to me,
105. 4:11my dear." he says.
106. 4:13She replies that she's got it and can
107. 4:15open the bottle.
108. 4:22>> The first few days, there was no help
109. 4:24from the government. The desperation was
110. 4:26overwhelming because we could hear
111. 4:28people screaming and there wasn't enough
112. 4:30support, either equipment or rescuers.
113. 4:33If we've had both, maybe we could have
114. 4:36saved more lives.
115. 4:40>> On the mountain of rubble, we saw people
116. 4:43digging with basic tools and their bare
117. 4:45hands.
118. 4:46William Rodriguez was looking for a
119. 4:48loved one.
120. 4:52>> I'm here because I want to find my uncle
121. 4:54and I'm not alone.
122. 4:56The stench here is unbearable, but we
123. 4:58can't sit idly as long as there is a
124. 5:00possibility that there might be
125. 5:02survivors under the rubble, he told us.
126. 5:07>> Nearby, we met Elizabeth Herrera who's
127. 5:09desperate for help to search for her two
128. 5:11daughters, teenagers Graydeliz and
129. 5:14Graybeliz.
130. 5:16She says they're quiet, studious girls.
131. 5:23>> They are all I have. I just want to find
132. 5:26them at any cost. There were no machines
133. 5:29or rescuers sent. It's like you've been
134. 5:31left on your own to search for your
135. 5:33loved ones.
136. 5:42>> Outside the hospitals, walls are slowly
137. 5:44filling up with pictures of the missing.
138. 5:48Families, neighbors, friends crowd
139. 5:51around the list of those admitted in the
140. 5:53hospital hoping to find a loved one.
141. 5:57Yering Que Bermudez has come here
142. 5:59looking for his friends.
143. 6:01Anger at his government spilling out as
144. 6:04he speaks.
145. 6:07>> The police and government didn't help
146. 6:09us. We pulled the bodies and survivors
147. 6:11out ourselves along with neighbors and
148. 6:14volunteers. We dug through the rubble
149. 6:16with our bare hands.
150. 6:19>> In a single family, we find a story of
151. 6:21survival and of extreme loss.
152. 6:2512-year-old Angel Paredes was dug out
153. 6:28from under the debris of his home after
154. 6:30more than 36 hours.
155. 6:32But his baby siblings and his father
156. 6:34died.
157. 6:35>> And your husband's name?
158. 6:38>> His mother Ruth showed us a photo of
159. 6:403-year-old Alexander with her husband
160. 6:43Drymar.
161. 6:48My little son was alive, but the
162. 6:51rescuers came too late and they didn't
163. 6:53have the machines that could have dug
164. 6:55him out faster.
165. 6:56He died next to his father, she said.
166. 7:04>> I'm very close to my family. I love my
167. 7:07younger siblings so much, said Angel.
168. 7:15>> Who's now been discharged but does not
169. 7:17have a home to go back to.
170. 7:22Tens of thousands are in a similar
171. 7:24situation.
172. 7:25And with more than 500 aftershocks
173. 7:27occurring since the earthquakes,
174. 7:30even many of those whose homes are still
175. 7:31standing are too scared to sleep
176. 7:34indoors.
177. 7:35Trauma and anger are everywhere.