Venezuela earthquake: father and son found alive in rubble after four days as death toll nears 1,500

A man and his teenage son were found alive under the rubble in Venezuela on Sunday, in a town about 40km north of the capital Caracas, AFP journalists reported, as the death toll from last week’s twin earthquakes passed 1,450. The discovery of survivors in Caraballeda was made by French and American rescue teams nearly four days after back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck, completely destroying nearly 200 buildings in the area. Interim president Delcy Rodríguez on Sunday praised rescuers for still pulling survivors from the ruins. “Today we have rescued people who are still alive, and therefore these efforts will not be suspended,” she said. “We always hold on to hope.” The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still reported missing and the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims following a natural disaster has now passed. Millions more people were reported to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America’s most devastating earthquake disasters. A rescue worker surveys the rubble in an area affected by the earthquake in Catia La Mar. Photograph: Ronald Pena R/EPA Rescue teams from the US, Mexico and elsewhere scrambled to save people as desperate residents dug by hand for relatives trapped in the pancaked layers and rubble of collapsed apartments. …