Venezuelan Family Brings 23-Year-Old Quake Victim Home as Village Honors 18 Volunteer Rescuers
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 22
Venezuelan Family Brings 23-Year-Old Quake Victim Home as Village Honors 18 Volunteer Rescuers
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 22
Summary
Alexandra Guedez García’s ashes were returned to Poblado Uno after her family found her body 18 days after the 24 June earthquakes that killed more than 5,000 people.
Residents of the small farming village turned out in torrential rain after 1:30 a.m. to welcome her home and salute the 18 local volunteers—16 men and two women—who spent two weeks digging through her collapsed 14-storey building.
At the wake, Alexandra’s father Adolfo Guedez said he blamed the government’s "inefficiency," echoing survivors’ complaints that rescuers were absent in the crucial early hours while troops stood by.
The funeral also exposed wider political anger: mourners quietly left when the ruling-party mayor arrived, underscoring discontent sharpened by the disaster in a country still navigating a fragile post-Maduro thaw.