‘We had no way of understanding if they were alive’: Venezuelan heartbreak in Windsor

A Venezuelan expat in Windsor calls the scenes of destruction caused by a pair of earthquakes this week in the country ‘heartbreaking’ as rescue and recovery efforts continue and the death toll rises.

Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes are blamed for the deaths of at least 920 people and a further 3,360 who have been injured, according to The Associated Press. The number of those missing has climbed to 51,000.

“It was very nerve wracking because we didn’t know what was going on. We couldn’t communicate with them,” said Luis Mendez, a Windsor realtor and gym owner, of reaching his family living in the heart of the devastation.

Mendez is from La Guaira, one of the areas hardest hit by the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes, a doublet sequence as described by the U.S. Geological Survey, that rocked a large swathe of the country’s northern coastline.

In an interview with CTV News, Mendez says much of his extended family is still living in his hometown, including his uncle. Mendez was only able to confirm through a neighbour that his uncle was okay, noting communication networks have become largely unreliable in the aftermath.

“We had no way of understanding if they were alive,” said Mendez, of his immediate efforts to contact family following the quakes. “The only person that we were able to speak with was my grandmother, because my grandmother is on the government subsidized phone line.”

He has since been able to connect with many of his family members in Venezuela, including a cousin living in Caracas, the country’s capital.

Mendez’s grandmother has survived the ordeal physically unscathed, but shaken, with her community of Carayaca, about an hour’s drive west of Caracas, also feeling the effects of the quakes.

“She felt the trembling,” said Mendez. “She got up and she tried to walk out of the house just out of complete shock. And she goes, ‘I felt like I was on a boat. I was just rocking side to side, [I] fell to my knees.’”

Mendez says a cousin was able to help her out of the house. He says the only significant damage to the home was a piece of roof crashing to the ground — enough to alarm his 88-year-old matriarch.

“My grandma says, ‘That’s where I sit all the time. If I would have been sitting out there, I would have been a goner,’” said Mendez. “I’m looking at videos and it’s just heartbreaking.”

Mendez adds, the disaster struck at a time of celebration, bringing people out of their homes and onto the streets to mark Battle of Carabobo Day, known locally as Batalla de Carabobo, commemorating a historic 1821 battle against the Spanish paving the way for the country’s independence.

“It was basically our Independence Day,” said Mendez. “People are home, eating on the streets, celebrating. You know, that’s what Venezuelans do.”

Hometown heartbreak

The images being relayed around the world of the destroyed buildings and homes in Venezuela are hard to watch for expats abroad.

To say the disaster is ‘hitting close to home’ for Mendez is an understatement.

“The apartment building I was born in and that I was raised in for the first year-and-a-half of my life is down,” said Mendez. “Where my uncle lives now is where I grew up. I lived in the third story of the house and that’s where he lives — he’s in the centre of the entire destruction.”

For a country that has already suffered so much hardship under a corrupt government regime, geopolitical tensions, and a shocking and violent U.S. military deposition of its leader earlier this year, Mendez says this latest blow is hard to stomach.

“I’ve seen some videos of people in my hometown, you know, crying, asking, pleading for help, that they’ve pulled out two bodies, but they need machinery, they need assistance,” said Mendez. “They need all kinds of support to be able to, potentially, even have a chance at saving some people.”

Canada and other countries have pledged humanitarian aid to Venezuela, as countries and other organizations work to coordinate relief efforts.

For Mendez, the disaster doesn’t just mean worry but also delaying, likely indefinitely, a long-awaited return home.

“My plan was to go this fall. We’d take the whole family back. Let’s go back and visit family and show my kids the beautiful country that Venezuela is, where I grew up, where I come from,” said Mendez, holding back tears. “This just puts it so far from now.”