A British mother and her newborn infant were rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Caracas on Tuesday night by a UK-led emergency response team, in an operation that officials described as a rare moment of co-operation between London and the Maduro government.
The woman, identified by the Foreign Office as 32-year-old Sarah Porter from Manchester, had been trapped for nearly 14 hours after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Venezuelan capital, levelling several residential blocks. Her child, delivered prematurely during the ordeal, was found alive and uninjured.
Porter had been visiting relatives in the Los Palos Grandes district when the quake hit at 3:14 a.m. local time. Rescue workers located her through thermal imaging equipment flown in from the UK, and used hydraulic cutters to reach the pair.
“This was a complex and high-risk extraction,” said James Whitaker, the team leader. “We were able to breach the concrete slab without destabilising the pile. The priority was the mother’s medical condition and the child’s vulnerability.”
Porter was treated for dehydration and a suspected fracture, but was listed in stable condition at a field hospital. Her baby, a girl weighing 2.4 kilograms, was placed in a neonatal unit operated by the Venezuelan Red Cross.
The operation marks a rare instance of direct British-Venezuelan collaboration, following months of strained diplomatic relations. The Maduro government has been under international sanctions, but allowed the UK team to operate under a special humanitarian waiver.
“This is not a political story,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “It is about saving lives. We are grateful for the co-operation of local authorities.”
The earthquake, which struck along a fault line near the Caribbean coast, has killed at least 213 people and displaced more than 15,000, according to Venezuelan civil defence figures. International rescue teams from France, Chile and Mexico have also arrived, but the UK contingent is the largest, with 72 personnel.
Porter’s husband, a British diplomat stationed in Brasília, was flown to Caracas on Wednesday morning. The family is expected to be repatriated to the UK within days.
Critics in London have questioned the risks of deploying a rescue team to a country with unstable political conditions, but the operation has been widely praised. The Archbishop of Caracas described the rescue as “a miracle of human solidarity”.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry issued a brief statement acknowledging the UK’s role, but did not comment on broader diplomatic ties. The rescue was conducted without condition, according to UK officials.
Whitaker’s team is now assisting in the search for other survivors, though hopes are fading as time passes. The mother and child will be remembered not as symbols, officials said, but as evidence of what can be achieved when institutional imperatives align with humanitarian duty.
