Rescue workers pulled 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas from the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, northern Venezuela, on June 29, 2026 [1].

The rescue serves as a rare moment of hope amid a humanitarian crisis caused by twin powerful earthquakes that struck the region on Wednesday evening, June 26, 2026 [2]. Thousands of people remained trapped under debris as emergency teams searched through destroyed structures near La Guaira [3].

A video released by the Venezuelan government shows the moment rescue teams extracted Vargas from the ruins [1]. According to some reports, the young man survived for 106 hours before he was reached by search crews [4]. Other reports described the duration as nearly two days [5].

The scale of the disaster remains difficult to quantify as reports on the casualties vary significantly. BBC News said that at least 920 people died [6], while NBC News said a death toll of at least 164 [7]. The disparity in these figures highlights the difficulty of coordinating casualty counts in the wake of the twin quakes.

In addition to the deaths, NBC News said that nearly 1,000 people were injured [8]. Search and rescue operations have focused on the hardest-hit areas of northern Venezuela, where building collapses were widespread.

Local authorities continue to search for survivors in the ruins of Caraballeda. The recovery of Vargas comes as the window for finding living survivors narrows, though rescue workers continue to operate in the debris fields [1].

“Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda.”

The rescue of a survivor after several days suggests that some individuals may have found air pockets or structural voids that allowed for prolonged survival. However, the wide discrepancy in death toll reports—ranging from 164 to 920—indicates a significant breakdown in data collection or a rapidly evolving casualty list, complicating the international community's understanding of the disaster's true magnitude.