Teens flee Venezuela's deadly quakes, only to face another disaster in Colombia

Two Venezuelan brothers who lost their mother, grandmother and younger brother in June's deadly earthquakes fled to Colombia, only to face another powerful tremor days later.A drone view shows rescuers searching for survivors amid destroyed buildings following an earthquake, in Cali, Colombia. (Photo: Reuters)Two Venezuelan teenagers who fled to Colombia after losing their mother, grandmother and younger brother in a devastating twin earthquakes found themselves running from another tremor just three days after crossing the border. Deivi Delfin, 15, and his 17-year-old brother Winder had travelled to Cali to live with their father after their home in Venezuela was reduced to rubble. But on Monday, the brothers were forced to flee again when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia, reviving memories of the disaster they had hoped to leave behind."The earthquake is haunting me," Deivi told the BBC, describing how months of earthquakes have left the brothers feeling as though they have been chased from one disaster to another.The teenagers had already endured the loss of three close family members and spent weeks searching through the remains of their home in Venezuela before moving to Colombia.THEIR HOME COLLAPSED AROUND THEMThe brothers were at the beach on Venezuela's Caribbean coast on 24 June when two powerful earthquakes struck just 39 seconds apart. Winder had wanted their 10-year-old brother, Moisses, to accompany them that day, but their mother had refused because he was grounded. As the teenagers travelled home that evening, the earthquakes struck. The brothers hugged each other and shut their eyes as the ground shook violently. When they opened them, their world had changed.Their 12-storey apartment building in La Guaira, the area hardest hit by the disaster, had collapsed. Their mother Yusmani, grandmother Carmen and Moisses were trapped beneath the concrete. "My world came crashing down," Winder said.The Venezuelan government said more than 6,300 people were killed in the earthquakes. There was still no clear official figure for the number of people missing.The brothers immediately joined the rescue efforts. For three days, they had nowhere to sleep and little to eat. Their father, Deivid, who was working in Colombia, could not locate his sons for three days after returning to Venezuela. When he finally found them, the family began a desperate search for their missing relatives.TEENS SEARCHED THROUGH THE RUBBLEDeivid knew allowing his sons to enter the wreckage was dangerous. But the brothers refused to stay away.Their age and size allowed them to squeeze through narrow openings between concrete slabs. Armed with handheld torches and mobile phones, they crawled into the wreckage and tried to identify places where rescuers should dig. The search continued for weeks. Along the way, the brothers discovered fragments of the life they had lost. Moisses's shorts, their mother's Bible and an unfinished shopping list were among the objects recovered from the rubble."By that point, I didn't feel like a child anymore," he recalled.One day, he spotted a piece of fabric buried in the debris and recognised it as his grandmother's floral skirt. Firefighters later confirmed that they had located a woman’s body.Winder was the first to recognise his mother. A plastic bag she had been using to dye her hair was still around her head when the teenagers found her. He moved as close to her as possible and stayed with her for a few moments. But rescuers could not immediately remove her body because it was pinned beneath a large concrete slab. When they finally shifted the slab, they discovered Moisses.The little boy was still holding onto his mother.After the bodies of their family members were recovered and laid to rest, the brothers left Venezuela and travelled to Cali to live with their father.A NEW HOME, THEN ANOTHER EARTHQUAKEThe teenagers settled into a modest neighbourhood on the north-eastern outskirts of Cali, where their father works. After weeks of death, destruction and uncertainty, they hoped Colombia would offer them a chance to start again. They wanted to study, work hard and build a future that would make their mother proud.But just three days after arriving, they felt the ground move again. Deivi was asleep when the earthquake began. At first, he thought the gentle movement was part of a dream. As the shaking intensified, he got out of bed and ran downstairs.Winder did the same.Outside, the brothers grabbed onto a metal gate and waited for the tremors to stop. Their father was on the street when the earthquake struck. As soon as he felt the shaking, his thoughts turned to his sons and he rushed back home. But the boys were nowhere to be found.A neighbour told him she had seen them leave the house. Deivid then searched the surrounding streets until he eventually found them outside the barbershop where he worked.Once again, the brothers had escaped an earthquake. And once again, they had left their father fearing the worst.The teenagers tried to reassure him with a sentence that reflected the extraordinary trauma they had already endured.- EndsPublished By: Satyam SinghPublished On: Aug 14, 2026 18:49 IST