'Lower your weapon': residents' pressure prompts military to help with rescues in Venezuela

Ecuadorian Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) volunteers and firefighters search for bodies at the site of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state. Juan Barreto / AFP A protest by residents forced a group of military personnel on Sunday (28) to pick up pickaxes and shovels and participate in clearing the rubble of a collapsed building, four days after earthquakes in Venezuela that have already caused nearly 1,500 deaths. LIVE: See the latest earthquake updates ✅ Follow g1's international news channel on WhatsApp "The country needs you. Lower your weapon, drop the bullets," an indignant man shouts at a soldier in the Tanaguarena area of La Guaira state, the epicenter of the tragedy, AFP journalists observed. Dozens of people working in rescue operations at a building destroyed by the strong earthquakes that hit Venezuela on Wednesday (24) confronted a group of about 20 military personnel who were at the scene merely providing security. Alexander Mijares, a 26-year-old merchant who had volunteered to help search for a female friend buried under the rubble at that site, explained the reason for his outburst of indignation to AFP. "They were leaning against a wall while we had to retrieve a dead person, and they were just standing quietly in a corner," he reported. Survivor tells how she managed to be rescued from the rubble in Venezuela "Why weren't they brought with work coveralls? Why weren't they brought with shovels and pickaxes? Why were they brought with rifles and weapons? Where is the war?" he protested. "They exist to defend a country," he added. Beside him, a group of people also shouted against the military. "My children are not going to be thrown into a mass grave," complained another man in one of Tanaguarena's buildings, exasperated by the delay in recovering the bodies. Faced with the protest, the military personnel picked up the tools and began clearing the rubble. The military has been a privileged sector during the governments of Hugo Chávez (1999–2013) and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. A pillar of power in Venezuela, the Armed Forces are also viewed as an instrument of repression. Rescue teams and volunteers search for potential victims in Caraballeda, La Guaira state. Mauricio Valenzuela / AFP