The body of Lucas Gámez, the eight-year-old Argentine boy who had been missing following the double earthquake that struck Venezuela, has been found. He is the child who had been trapped in a building that collapsed in La Guaira and was being intensely searched for by his family.
As confirmed by official sources to Infobae, after two weeks of intense searching, the lifeless remains of the minor were found within the rubble in one of the areas most affected by the double earthquake that occurred on June 24th.
Along those lines, according to what this media outlet was able to learn, Argentine rescuers were working alongside the family and Venezuelan personnel on the structure that had collapsed in rotating four-hour shifts, throughout the entire day.
Finally, it was decided to bring in heavy machinery to remove the heavy debris that still remained, and it was then that the remains of the minor were found.
Born to Venezuelan parents but in Argentina, Lucas had taken advantage of the day of the tragedy, which was a holiday in Venezuela, and traveled to La Guaira to go to the sea with his aunts and uncles. In that context, the boy was at the beach, bought an ice cream, and at one point returned to the apartment with his uncle, located on the second floor of one of the many buildings that ended up destroyed.
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“The even-numbered elevator was broken and Lucas—along with his uncle—took the odd-numbered elevator with another person who was going to the 7th floor. That person survived, which is why we have certain theories about where he could be,” said a hopeful Marcos Gámez, Lucas’s father, in a conversation with the news channel TN.
And in this sense, he detailed: “This person says that Lucas took the elevator with him, got off with his uncle on the 3rd floor, and this person, when he arrives at the 7th floor and enters his apartment, is when the collapse occurs.”
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Body of Lucas Gámez, the Argentine boy who was missing after the earthquakes in Venezuela, has been found
Since then, Lucas’s family began an intense search campaign that quickly reached Argentina. Both his father and his mother, Blancalida Martínez Coronado, gave minute-by-minute details about what the searches were like within the remains of the structure that collapsed.
Last Monday was the boy’s ninth birthday and his family decided to bring a cake with candles to celebrate in the midst of the operations. Along those lines, his parents had anticipated that there was still a significant amount of debris removal left and that the work would continue.
His mother shared the minute-by-minute updates of the operations through her social media, and in the last post, she asked for prayers with an image in front of the remains of the building that collapsed in La Guaira. The last post from Lucas Gámez’s mom.
In his free time, Lucas liked to play soccer. He even played for the 2017 category of the Buenos Aires club Defensores de Belgrano. The institution shared a photo of the boy wearing the jersey.
Furthermore, in the post shared through social media, they wrote: “With deep sorrow, we want to share with you the confirmation of the death of Lucas Gámez Martínez in the Venezuela earthquake. Lucas defended our colors playing in the 2017 category″.
“He had been missing for two weeks and was found today by rescue authorities. We embrace his family tightly at this terrible moment,” they concluded.
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Precisely, this is one of the areas most affected by the devastating double earthquake of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, with dozens of buildings that collapsed and hundreds of people missing.
The death toll from the earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24th has risen to 3,685 people, according to the latest report released this Tuesday by the head of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez.
They also caused 16,740 injuries and left 17,907 people homeless in different parts of the country. The impact destroyed key infrastructure, affected residential buildings, and generated a humanitarian emergency that keeps the population on edge.
Satellite images analyzed by the U.S. space agency NASA estimate that the number of affected structures could be around 58,870, including those destroyed and those with severe damage in the hardest-hit region. The situation in La Guaira is especially critical, with hundreds of families displaced and rescue teams working against the clock.
