Twelve days after a pair of earthquakes rocked northern Venezuela, international rescue teams are making preparations to depart the country as the likelihood of finding survivors beneath the rubble dwindles.
The death toll has risen to more than 3,500, according to the government, and is expected to go much higher, considering that as many as 40,000 people are still missing after almost two weeks.
People in hard-hit areas like La Guaira, on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, have criticized the government for its lack of help in the first days following the quakes. Teams of ordinary citizens were seen scouring through the rubble to rescue survivors with little to no equipment.
As time goes on, families in La Guaira have largely given up hope and are now seeking to recover the remains of their loved ones before the heaps of concrete are hauled away.
Morela Rodríguez, who lost four family members in the disaster, watched from a sidewalk as rescuers pulled bodies from the Hugo Chávez Housing Complex, a government funded housing project in the Catia La Mar neighborhood of La Guaira.
She is overcome with outrage, saying there hasn't been any effort from authorities to retrieve her family members' corpses.
"I've already located my son, his wife, and my two grandchildren. We can see the bodies, and so far no one has been able to do anything," she told International Business Times. "Help is coming from everywhere, but they're looking for survivors—we also want our family members."
Rodríguez, 50, said she wants to give her family members a dignified burial. "We don't want them to tear this down without removing the bodies."
Despite her frustrations, Rodríguez is sympathetic to the dangerous work of rescuers. She said she thinks the search for survivors should continue, but that families have a right to recover the bodies of their loved ones.
"They have to do something," she said, adding that other members of her family had found her deceased relatives on the 10th floor of their building, but rescuers said it was too dangerous to retrieve them as the building could collapse at any moment.
Now, she feels hopeless.
"We appreciate all the help coming from other countries, but we also need them to help those of us who have family members who died there," she said.
Over 30 countries deployed or pledged rescue personnel to Venezuela after the quakes struck, including the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. Many of them now are preparing to return home.
On the ground in La Guaira and other affected areas the International Business Times visited for this report, the overwhelming feeling is that the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez failed to act in an effective, timely manner to respond to the disaster.
Rodríguez held a press conference last Thursday to defend her government's response. She blamed any criticism of the government on "narratives manufactured in propaganda laboratories."
But as the situation for the presidency evolves into a political disaster, on the ground it's still very much a humanitarian one, with thousands of people taking refuge in parks and public squares around Caracas -- some too afraid to return home, some with no home to return to.
Citizen volunteers have come from other states to lend a hand where they can.
At Parque del Este, one of the largest parks in the city, Sheyna Moncada, a 20-year-old from the Táchira state, arrived on behalf of the Anthony Foundation to donate toys to children who've been left homeless by the disaster.
"I've come here before to hand out tizana [a traditional fruit cocktail]. People thanked us because there are many who can't afford sweets," she said.
"It hurts me to see my people in this situation, and I'm also very angry about how the National Guard and the government interfered with humanitarian aid—there are so many people suffering and left without a home."
As rescuers begin to depart, like many Venezuelans, Moncada is fearing what comes next.
"This isn't just for a week—it's going to last for months. Many people are going to be left without a home because we don't have the financial resources to build houses for so many people."
