Antonella Molina and her nephew Pedro are searching for 18-year-old Andres Molina in La Guaira, Venezuela CARACAS, Venezuela -- Antonella Molina, her nephew Pedro Molina and a group of friends set out at 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday, hands full of flyers, walking carefully through the rubble that remains throughout La Guaira after two catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes 10 weeks ago. Their mission is to find 18-year-old Andrés Molina — Antonella’s nephew and Pedro’s cousin — who they haven’t heard from since the double earthquakes hit Venezuela on June 24. Andrés is among tens of thousands who remain missing, according to an independent account, far surpassing the government estimate of 1,500.
Weeks before, Antonella and other relatives pulled the bodies of Andrés’ mother and brother from the collapsed remains of their 10-story apartment building that collapsed in La Guaira, the coastal area just north of the capital Caracas that was one of the hardest hit. The building once housed more than 30 people but there was no sign of Andrés, not even the backpack he always carried. Neighbors told the family they have seen Andrés wandering the destruction collecting scrap metal; they hold out hope that he survived.
And they are determined to keep searching on their own until they find him. In the days after the quakes, neighbors said they saw Andrés wandering around with an apparent head injury. The family called shelters, hospitals and morgues but there was no news of Andrés.
They turned to putting up flyers around the area with his photo and a number to call. The calls rolled in, reporting sightings at a nearby golf course, park or restaurant. But Andrés was never there when they showed up.
When they would ask around, people told them stories of seeing the young man in the photo, often trying to give food to cats, his favorite animal. Just the day before the search, police told Antonella they saw him collecting scrap material nearby, further fueling their optimism. On the Saturday of the renewed search, about 15 friends and relatives walked the streets, past the busted windows and collapsed walls as the noise of ongoing construction equipment rumbled in the background.
Antonella approached neighbors and construction crews with a warm, Venezuelan greeting of “how are you, mi amor?” She explained her hunt for information about her nephew. A construction worker said he saw him near the golf course. Another woman sitting outside on a plastic chair said she saw the flyers but not Andrés.
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