In the aftermath of a devastating landslide that tore through a hillside community in the state of La Guaira, Venezuelan rescue workers have been operating under a strict protocol of silence. The directive, issued by the national search and rescue coordination centre in Caracas, is a familiar one in disaster zones: no one move. The aim is to allow the faintest sound of a trapped survivor to be heard beneath the rubble.
The landslide, triggered by days of torrential rain, struck the town of Macuto in the early hours of Tuesday morning. At least 30 people are confirmed dead, with dozens more missing. The disaster has overwhelmed local emergency services, prompting an appeal for international assistance.
Britain has responded by deploying a team of specialist search and rescue advisers from the Department for International Development. These personnel, drawn from the UK’s International Search and Rescue network, are not tasked with digging. Their role is to provide technical guidance on structural triage, seismic listening devices, and the safe stabilisation of collapsed buildings. Such expertise is vital in a country where successive economic crises have eroded the capacity of state institutions.
The arrival of the British team has been met with cautious optimism by Venezuelan authorities. In a joint press conference held at the airport in La Guaira, the interior minister acknowledged that the UK’s offer of assistance was “a gesture of solidarity in difficult times”. Relations between London and Caracas have been strained in recent years, largely over human rights concerns and the disputed legitimacy of President Nicolás Maduro’s government. This co-operation, however limited, is therefore notable.
On the ground, the operation is a painstaking one. Rescue workers from the Venezuelan Civil Protection agency and the Bolivarian National Guard have been working in shifts, using their hands and basic tools to clear debris. The British advisers, wearing their distinctive orange helmets, are positioned at key points where the risk of secondary collapse is highest. They communicate through interpreters, offering calm, precise instructions.
The phrase ‘no one move’ has become a mantra. At regular intervals, the workers stop. All heavy machinery is silenced. Rescue dogs are halted. For 30 seconds, the only sound is the wind and the distant crash of surf. Then, the listening resumes.
For those trapped, time is measured in hours, not days. The hope is that pockets of air within the rubble might sustain life for up to 72 hours. But the rains continue, threatening further destabilisation. The British team has already advised against the use of heavy excavators in certain zones, judging the risk to survivors too great.
This disaster is a test of Venezuela’s resilience and of its willingness to accept help from abroad. The British offer of expertise is modest, but in a region where geopolitical rivalries often complicate humanitarian aid, it is a model of practical diplomacy. The value lies not in grand declarations, but in the patient work of listening for a sound that says: we are still here.
