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A Venezuelan mother who used her own body to shield her one-year-old during the pair of powerful earthquakes that struck on June 24 has died, relatives and local reports say. The tremors, measured at 7.2 and 7.5, caused widespread building collapses and heavy casualties.
Scale of the disaster
Rescue teams have been working across hard-hit areas since the quakes. Authorities reported the official death toll had reached 589 by the afternoon of Friday, June 26, and warned the figure may rise as search operations continue.
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Officials also said at least 50,000 people were missing in the immediate aftermath, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian emergency and the challenges faced by survivors and responders.
A parent’s final act
Among those killed was a woman identified as Andrea, who was pulled from the rubble after reportedly using her body to protect her infant daughter when their building gave way. The child was rescued alive.
The loss has drawn attention as one example of the many individual tragedies within the broader catastrophe.
Messages from Héctor “Kike” Bello
Her partner, defender Héctor Bello — known as “Kike” and who plays for second-division side Marítimo de La Guaira — has shared public tributes expressing his grief. In one message he wrote: “You left us alone in the fight, mummy. You left me all alone with our daughter.”
He continued in a separate post: “How do I tell that to my daughter? Andrea, how do I explain to your daughter that you lost your life to save hers, and I wasn’t there in that moment to do anything? How do I explain? Give me strength now because I can’t take any more.”
Bello added: “You’ll always be our favourite hero, Mummy. I’m going to make sure our baby remembers how wonderful you were, how much you loved her. I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her, how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who, even with your last breath, never abandoned her.” He later wrote: “Oh, Andrea, Mummy, I can’t handle this, my love, I really can’t.”
Local and international aid efforts are ongoing as families wait for news of missing relatives and authorities try to assess the full extent of damage caused by the quakes.
