South Florida search-and-rescue teams, working with other first responders from around the world, helped pull a 43-year-old security guard alive from the rubble of a collapsed shopping center, eight days after devastating twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, Miami city officials report.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores was rescued Thursday from the collapsed basement of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town of Catia La Mar. Covered in dust and strapped to a stretcher, Gil Flores was cheered by helmet-clad rescue workers after enduring a grueling ordeal underground.

Teams carrying flags from around the world cheered as rescuers carried Gil Flores, wearing an oxygen mask and covered in an orange tarp, through throngs of people to an ambulance where they methodically checked his vital signs.

Gil Flores, who worked as a night-shift security guard at the complex, was inside his small security cabin when the first violent tremor struck. While the surrounding concrete structure , his cabin held ground, shielding him from crushing debris and creating a vital pocket of air.

First responders initially made contact with Gil Flores over the weekend, working more than 100 hours to free him by navigating a highly unstable structure, torrential rain and to tunnel down to the survivor.

The rescue was part of a massive international effort that included the Florida Task Force. Led by the City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue, the task force deployed 80 highly trained personnel from various South Florida cities to assist in the disaster zone, said city of Miami officials.

The operation was coordinated by an urban search and rescue team of Chilean firefighters, who worked around the clock with specialized teams from the United States, Portugal, , Costa Rica, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Members of Miami's FL-TF2 worked shoulder-to-shoulder with international crews, utilizing specialized knowledge and high-tech equipment to finally free the trapped man.

In a statement following the operation, City of Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins praised the bravery and dedication of the rescue workers.

“Today, all of Miami has a reason to be proud,” Higgins said. “This rescue is a testament to what humanity can accomplish when we work together.”

"My thoughts remain with Hernán Alberto Flores Gil as he begins his recovery, and with the thousands of victims from this tragedy," Higgins said.

The collapse of the building where Flores Gil worked was triggered by on June 24 that registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, respectively.

The shallow, violent tremors damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings across northern Venezuela, killing more than 2,200 people, injuring over 11,000 and leaving La Guaira state as the hardest-hit region in the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

GUATEMALA CITY — Gabriel García Luna, Guatemala’s new pledged Wednesday to dismantle what he called the “repressive and vengeful” administration of his predecessor, who was sanctioned by multiple countries including the U.S. for stifling anti-corruption efforts.

once a strong U.S. partner in the region on anti-corruption efforts, took a turn under Consuelo Porras, who stifled corruption cases, persecuted justice officials, activists and journalists, and drove many into exile. She also attempted to and invalidate his presidency by alleging fraud, which was never proven.

“Everyone has a concept of a Public Prosecutor’s Office that can be used in a certain way, and we can no longer have that,” García Luna told The Associated Press. “It is not a political entity, nor a political weapon for anyone, and I do not intend to repeat the actions taken in previous administrations.”

García Luna has already begun moving the institution in a new direction by dismantling the network of Porras’ trusted administrative and prosecutorial staff, who were accused of criminalizing and persecuting former justice officials. He has also launched a commission to review cases of people criminalized.

Porras has denied the accusations against her. The Public Prosecutor’s Office while it was under her tenure said the accusations affect Porras’ “right to honor, dignity, reputation and the presumption of innocence.”

On Wednesday, GarcĂ­a Luna expressed his commitment to radical change to the institution by reviewing potential abuses during the past administration and reviving the prosecutorial profession, which was battered by the

García Luna said his predecessor "formed a parallel government that destroyed the prosecutorial profession, mainly by dismissing between 800 and 1,000 employees during her eight-year tenure.”

The new attorney general did not rule out the possibility of legal action against Porras, who has several complaints against her, including one for human trafficking in irregular adoptions, and her associates.

In cases where the prosecutor’s office, under Porras’ orders, benefited or allowed the release of alleged corrupt officials, drug traffickers and those accused of other crimes, the prosecutor stated that these cases are being reviewed, reopened and that legal action will be taken to ensure there is no impunity.

Many, including former prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, who lives in for his work on high-impact corruption cases, say the allegations against Porras and those in her administration should be subject to an “impartial and independent” investigation.

“These should not go unresolved, in accordance with the principle of equality before the law and the principle that no one should be above the law,” Sandoval said.

GarcĂ­a Luna already has international support, such as from the U.S. government and countries of the European Union, that have offered their backing in the fight against transnational crime, and human trafficking.

He said that the Attorney General’s Office is collaborating with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 4 to review cases of people who denounced political persecution under Porras.

Amid the remarkable outpouring of earthquake aid to Venezuela from the South Florida diaspora, one expat who’s flying that help into the battered country has become an inspiration.

The pilot’s name is Eduardo. (He asked SAąúĽĘ´«Ä± not to use his last name to protect his identity.) He’s lived in Doral for two decades, but still has close family and friends in Venezuela — especially in the central coast state of La Guaira, the place hardest hit by last week’s powerful twin earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people, perhaps tens of thousands more.

"I have an uncle who was working in MaiquetĂ­a," Eduardo said, referring to the SimĂłn BolĂ­var International Airport in La Guaira, itself heavily damaged in the temblors.

"I hadn't been able to get in touch with him since the earthquakes occurred last Wednesday."

READ MORE: Salazar: Venezuelan regime should not halt earthquake aid, Trump should halt deportations

Last Sunday Eduardo found out why, when he landed in La Guaira at the controls of a 737 freighter jet filled with earthquake relief aid donated to the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) in Doral.

Asking for his uncle at the airport, Eduardo learned that he — and numerous other loved ones in La Guaira — had perished.

“As soon as I arrived," Eduardo said, "I started hearing about the deaths of a beloved uncle and aunt, a cousin, childhood friends and former pilot colleagues who were like brothers to me."

Spencer Taylor, a GEM director who'd accompanied Eduardo on the flight into La Guaira, said just seeing the destruction there as the plane approached visibly affected the pilot.

"You could see he was struggling, processing a lot of hard emotions," Taylor said on Wednesday from Caracas.

"But through it he still landed that plane, I think, because he knew what was on it — some of the first humanitarian aid to make it into Venezuela."

Still, Eduardo said, the fatalities he was apprised of after landing "was too much loss to bear.”

But he did bear it — and said he became even more determined to keep piloting aid flights into Venezuela.

“It made me realize how urgently I still have to help the friends and family of Venezuelans who »ĺľ±»ĺ˛Ô’t die,” he told SAąúĽĘ´«Ä± on Wednesday morning just before taking off on his third aid flight from Miami International Airport.

That grit has made Eduardo a focus of even further motivation for the Venezuelan expats who've been volunteering in droves at GEM's vast headquarter warehouse in Doral, which Eduardo visited earlier this week.

"Gracias por lo que has hecho, pana! Estamos contigo" — "Thank you for what you've done, bro'! We're with you" — many aid donation volunteers shouted.

Venezuelan-born Doral City Councilman Rafael Pineyro, who spoke with Eduardo about his troubles contacting those relatives in La Guaira before the Sunday flight left Miami, said many if not most of those workers identify with Eduardo's tragedy.

"They've come out not just to help," Pineyro, said, "but to relieve their frustration and emotions because they themselves are still waiting to hear from a friend or a relative."

The South Florida diaspora, he added, has also donated relief goods at a volume GEM has rarely seen in response to a natural disaster.

And they're all too aware of how important Eduardo's GEM aid deliveries are, given how unprepared and ineffective the disaster response has been from Venezuela's corrupt and authoritarian regime — which in recent days has been condemned by Venezuelans and the international community for obstructing the U.S. and foreign aid effort.

Meanwhile, Eduardo said his aid missions to La Guaira keep showing him how awful the destruction there is and how much time and effort will be required to mend it.

"As I contemplate the deaths of my family members there between flights," he said, "I see families made homeless, living in the streets, many without clothing.

"Without the response of the U.S., the international community and the Venezuelan diaspora and groups like [GEM], I don't even want to think of how much worse it could be."

All he knows, he said, is that every time he lands at La Guaira now, he thinks about "how the grain of sand I represent in this effort" can at least make it better.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Doctors said Wednesday they feared the aftermath of Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes could trigger a widening medical crisis marked by untreated injuries, infectious diseases and a healthcare system already on the brink.

Thousands of displaced Venezuelans are sleeping in crowded shelters or outside without access to clean water amid dismal sanitary conditions following the June 24 earthquakes which officials say killed at least 2,295 and left more than 11,000 injured.

Aid workers said the aftermath of the quakes has become a major medical crisis that, unless quickly controlled, would take more lives in the days and weeks ahead. The emergency has laid bare Venezuela's chronic shortage of doctors, the result of years of economic crisis, underfunding and emigration.

"The issue we foresee just around the corner is the infections that patients who have been exposed to the disaster for the longest time might bring," said Eugenio Cova, the head of the trauma unit at Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández in Caracas, the capital. "We've already gone through a period of complex trauma — which will continue to occur — but now it's complicated by infections."

Aid workers also warn that the extensive damage to infrastructure could fuel outbreaks of diseases in the hardest-hit communities.

"It's very hot and there's a lot of concern about potential vector-borne diseases," said Veronique Durroux, the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Waste management is an issue. Debris management, when you see the scale of devastation, it's very concerning."

US military deploys 900 personnel to aid Venezuela

The United States had 900 military personnel currently on the ground to support relief and rescue operations as of Wednesday, Steven McLoud, a U.S. Southern Command spokesperson, told The Associated Press.

The military has repaired an earthquake-damaged runway at the country's main international airport that serves Caracas to allow for the arrival of humanitarian assistance and stationed naval assets off the coast to receive airlifted survivors. An additional 100 people from the U.S. State Department have been sent to aid those efforts, McLoud said.

So far, the Trump administration has offered Venezuela $300 million in assistance channeled through aid groups and the United Nations. But that's just a fraction of the post-earthquake aid the country needs: Material damage from the quakes is estimated at over $6.7 billion, according to satellite analysis by the U.N. Development Program.

Fifty other international teams have arrived in recent days to help with search-and-rescue operations, including from countries like Ecuador and Israel that don't have diplomatic relations with Venezuela. Against the odds, rescuers are continuing to find a small number of survivors, including on Tuesday, a toddler who had been trapped for six days.

READ MORE: Aid workers warn of infectious diseases, overwhelmed hospitals after Venezuela quakes

Crisis-stricken hospitals dealt another blow

Long before the earthquakes, Venezuela's public hospitals were strained by shortages of water, energy, critical medical equipment and highly trained staff.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2013, when Nicolás Maduro took office and the economy came undone as a result of mismanagement, corruption and a drop in oil prices.

Among those who took flight were many specialized doctors and nurses.

Venezuela's medical association has estimated that about a third of its 60,000 registered physicians have left the country since the economic crisis began. Dr. HunĂ­ades Urbina, a member of the board of the pediatrics association of Venezuela, said the number left is roughly half of the 84,000 that the country needs based on World Health Organization standards.

Urbina added that a 2025 national survey of public hospitals revealed shortages of more than 30% of emergency supplies and more than 70% of supplies in operating rooms. Laboratories are "all practically closed or do the basic things only," he said.

The earthquakes "once again highlight the Venezuelan government's inability to provide an adequate health care system that meets the needs of the Venezuelan people," he said.

Underequipped hospitals face a surge

Those who remain now confront the overwhelming prospect of treating thousands of grievous injuries from crushed and caved-in concrete structures.

Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández in Caracas lacks screws and plates needed for orthopedic surgery and medicated gauze to prevent infections, said Cova, who conducts surgery on crushed limbs in makeshift operating rooms because possible earthquake damage has made parts of the building inaccessible. Doctors have even started posting what medical supplies they need on social media, asking for donations.

According to the government, the earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide.

There's also a nationwide shortage of ambulances that forces many injured Venezuelans to arrive at hospitals in the backs of pickup trucks, said Jaime Lorenzo, director of United Doctors of Venezuela, a nonprofit network of medical professionals. That's just one of the ways that ordinary citizens, feeling abandoned by the government, say they've been forced to shoulder much of the rescue effort.

When the chaos and trauma of the quakes starts to subside, Lorenzo said he fears a new wave of patients will hit hospitals: Venezuelans, who, rendered suddenly homeless after the earthquakes, have gone all week without medication for chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Questions over government response

The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez — who served as deputy to Maduro until he was ousted by the United States in January and who became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration — has faced growing criticism over its handling of the disaster.

Videos circulating on social media in recent days appear to show security officers picking through the rubble of fallen buildings and making off with U.S. dollars, appliances and other personal belongings and sparking widespread anger among Venezuelans. The videos couldn't be verified by the AP.

In response to the videos, the the Interior Ministry on Wednesday said it dismissed and detained four police officials for "deviating from their duties and taking advantage of the rescue and humanitarian aid efforts."

Many thousands remain missing, adding ambiguity to the complete toll and leaving families in an agonizing limbo as they wait days by collapsed buildings, hoping for the bodies of their loved ones to surface. One non-governmental digital database where families can register missing loved ones showed over 40,600 people still unaccounted for as of Wednesday.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials pushed back against accusations that RodrĂ­guez was politicizing response efforts and brushed off widespread criticisms of failures by Venezuela's government to respond to the crisis. Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, turned blame on decades of neglect in Venezuela which he said "made this even more challenging for the current government."

"It is a big problem for any leader to deal with a challenge of this magnitude," Donovan said.

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This story has been corrected to show the U.S. Southern Command spokesperson's name is Steven McLoud, not Steven McCloud, and the hospital name is Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, not Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregor Hernández.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City and DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press journalist Ben Finley contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian senator, who recently lost the nation's presidential election, said Tuesday he will not recognize his opponent, Abelardo de la Espriella, as the nation's new head of state, if he does not comply with several demands, including renouncing his U.S. citizenship.

In a statement issued Tuesday, progressive senator Iván Cepeda urged de la Espriella, the winner of June's presidential runoff, to renounce his U.S. citizenship, arguing that holding it while being Colombia's president could generate conflicts of interest.

The senator also said that de la Espriella should clarify whether he is an "agent" of the United States, because as a criminal defense lawyer he defended a former paramilitary leader who was an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Cepeda also said that de la Espriella should desist from any efforts to extradite to the U.S. outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have said they are investigating for potential ties to drug traffickers.

"If these conditions of legality are not met, as the leader of the opposition, I will embark on the path of peaceful civil disobedience that implies not recognizing the authority of someone who will not defend our national sovereignty," Cepeda said.

De la Espriella, a conservative lawyer who ran on a tough-on-crime platform and was endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, won Colombia's presidential runoff on June 21, defeating Cepeda by 250,000 votes.

Cepeda acknowledged the results of the elections three days later, after Colombian authorities validated an election-day quick vote count, which showed de la Espriella had obtained 49.6% of the votes while Cepeda got 48.7%.

De la Espriella did not immediately respond to Cepeda's accusations, or requests for him to renounce U.S. citizenship.

The 47-year-old lawyer, who is set to be inaugurated as Colombia's president on Aug. 7, was born in Bogota. He obtained U.S. citizenship as an adult after living for several years in Florida, where he ran a law firm that represented high-profile clients, including former paramilitary leaders accused of human rights abuses and businessmen charged with money laundering.

Cepeda's threat of not recognizing de la Espriella as head of state is not expected to have any legal implications because de la Espriella has already been certified as the election's winner by the National Electoral Council.

Manuel Camilo González, a political science professor at Bogota's Javeriana University, said that Cepeda's stance, however, could spark street protests or justify efforts to block de la Espriella's agenda in the nation's Congress.

Cepeda's party, the Historical Pact, has the most senators in Colombia, although it is short of the majority required to block legislation on its own.

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Follow AP's Latin America coverage at

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela's fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals overwhelmed by the injured and deteriorating conditions in the disaster zone causing infectious diseases to spread.

The scores of international and domestic teams across Venezuela remain focused on the search for survivors, with the government death toll surpassing 1,700 and new bodies still being hauled out from the rubble.

But a humanitarian crisis is already unfolding among the living. United Nations agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.

Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said on Tuesday. Suddenly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and elsewhere without adequate emergency shelter available.

Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said.

At a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier warned that displaced Venezuelans without access to toilets, showers, soap or much nourishing food have become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable diseases like measles, given the population's low vaccination rates. Conditions are ripe for waterborne infections like dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread.

The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underinvestment and years of economic crisis is "under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases," Lindmeier said.

According to the government, last week's earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now buckling under the influx of injuries.

Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said, compounding the challenges to health care in a country that 8 million people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent years.

"Findings reveal chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding, growing surgical backlogs ... and a breakdown in biosafety measures," Lindmeier said. He added that "the collapse of forensic and morgue services and inadequate casualty registration" has made it difficult to gauge the scope of the disaster.

Venezuela's government, which has long retained control over access to information, offers daily casualty updates. Jorge RodrĂ­guez, the president of the National Assembly, announced Monday that the official toll stood at 1,719 people killed and 5,000 injured, and warned the public against sharing information that contradicted authorities.

Experts say the official toll is likely a significant undercount, as many more people remain missing and hopes for finding survivors diminish with each passing day.

NASA estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, on Tuesday said 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.

Authorities have not offered an official count of missing people, leading many Venezuelans to turn to nongovernmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. One such registry listed at least 43,220 people as missing.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at

By several measures, things are not going well in Puerto Rico. Tens of thousands of homes have been after a major break on a principal water main. Blackouts have become normalized. A political scandal involving allegations of corruption and political meddling has led to a .

But in another, ironically controversial way, things are looking up for the U.S. territory.

Ten years ago the island was deep in fiscal crisis after the government spent more money that it generated in revenue for 16 straight years. Finally, the weight of all its loans became too much to bear, and the Puerto Rican government essentially was at risk of defaulting on its accumulated $73 billion in debt.

That was ten years ago. Today, the island’s debt sits at $31 billion. Over the last ten years the island has slashed its debt by 58%. Few would argue debt reduction in itself is a bad thing.

How exactly it slashed the debt is the controversial, divisive, part.

That’s because ten years ago today President Barack Obama signed the PROMESA Act (short for the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act) into law. The law created a to oversee the territory’s finances. The board has since then held veto power over many essential decisions on the U.S. territory. The elected government has to receive approval of the board in order to pass an annual budget.

Under the control of the board, government spending has been slashed and severe austerity measures have been imposed. About one-third of public schools have been closed. The healthcare system has fallen into crisis. The electrical system has been privatized, although blackouts remain an issue.

Much of the government’s revenue, in turn, is used to pay down the debt.

Members of the federal board are not elected. They are directly appointed by the President. The first board meeting was held thousands of miles away for the island, in the Financial District of Manhattan. Meetings are held in English, contrasted with the vast majority of Puerto Ricans who speak Spanish. To watch a meeting of the board – known colloquially as La Junta, which means “The Board” but carries all the negative connotations of the word in English – is to peer into the eyes of a governance structure that is uncomfortably colonial. Many Puerto Ricans have called for the , calling it is a colonial enterprise.

Perhaps in anticipating the backlash, President Obama nodded to tensions that La Junta could create when he signed the bill into law on June 30, 2016.

“The people of Puerto Rico need to know they are not forgotten, that they’re part of the American family," Obama said. "And Congress’ responsiveness to this issue — even though this is not a perfect bill — at least moves us in the right direction.”

The ten years of the board being in effect have overlapped with difficult periods in the island's history. Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left thousands dead and decimated the electrical grid. In the wake of the storms hundreds of thousands of residents fled the island to the U.S. mainland, . Then, a further damaged island infrastructure in early 2020. That damage was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly affected the tourism sector.

Yet things have more or less stabilized on the island. The population continues to decline, but migration has significantly slowed. Few are leaving. The island's economy is flat, not growing but also not shrinking.

SAąúĽĘ´«Ä± spoke with  Jose Caraballo Cueto, an economist at the University of Puerto Rico to mark the ten years of PROMESA being in effect. We spoke about the anniversary, what it means for the island, and if the island will ever have self-governance again.

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

SAąúĽĘ´«Ä±:  We're 10 years now into the existence of this board. How much progress has been made in reducing the island's debt and getting the island into better fiscal shape?

CARABALLO CUETO:  In these 10 years, the debt from the central government was restructured. Not at the level that economists were expecting that it should be done, but there was a “haircut”, as the way we call it. It's a reduction in the principal and in the interest that is going to be paid for the next 20 to 40 years.

And in the case of the government corporations some of that debt was restructured and other [had] a sort of a refinancing. We are paying more, for instance, for water service — we're paying a higher rate to pay bondholders.

In the case of municipalities as well, the debt was refinanced. And yeah, in that case it wasn't the best thing to do. But at least for the central government, debt was reduced.

 How is La Junta seen and understood on the island 10 years into this experiment? 

Before the board was imposed on Puerto Rico, there were a couple of surveys in Puerto Rico [that asked], "What do you think about a federal commission coming to Puerto Rico?" And people said, "Well, those federal agents might put corrupt politicians in jail, so it might be a good thing." About 60% of the population — before the board was imposed — they were in favor of a federal board in Puerto Rico.

But just two years later, the vast majority of Puerto Ricans were opposing the Junta, and that was across the political spectrum. Very few people right now support La Junta.

This is like going back to the Spaniard colonialism where we didn't elect a governor here, they were just sending the people they wanted here. It's like going backward. Or — under U.S. rule. Before the 1950s, in Puerto Rico, we didn't elect our governor. It was someone imposed from the federal government. So we're, we're going backwards in that sense.

To be clear, the government of Puerto Rico cannot pass a budget without the sign-off of the board. Right? 

 Correct. The board that is in Puerto Rico has veto power, and they have used it quite widely. I remember one day that the local government approved a couple of labor rights for the private sector, and they, said: "We are opposed to that legislation." So they use their veto power for something that doesn't have to do anything with the government.

For instance, the . Many people that are [reading] have come to Puerto Rico to Old San Juan. So that pier used to belong to the government, and the local government was not in favor of that privatization. But the board said, "We're gonna do it anyway." So they are not just using veto power for fiscal issues that are related to taxes and government expenditures, but also about public policies.

 And how have the spending cuts mandated by the board affected day-to-day life on the island? 

 Who received the largest cut? The University of Puerto Rico. They cut the budget about 50% and imposed really draconian austerity measures on the university. And the second entities that received a large cut were municipalities in Puerto Rico.  Usually when there is a hurricane here, the municipalities are the ones that provide the first rescue services for the population.

And about one-third of the public schools in Puerto Rico were closed. They said that was going to help the government to obtain some savings, but when I look at the data, I don’t see any. We're spending more or less the same amount of money in the Department of Education, but with fewer schools.

In the time that the board has been operating in the last decade, we know from opinion polls and even the last gubernatorial election [results] in Puerto Rico in 2024, it looks like support for independence has gone up. Do you see a correlation between the board's presence on the island and the public sentiment shifting slightly in that way, in a pro-independence direction? 

 Many people were scared when I was a little kid and when I was a teenager. They were scared of independence. They say, "Oh, under independence, we're not gonna have continuous electricity. We're gonna have a lot of blackouts." Guess what? We're having a lot of blackouts right now. Under independence, a lot of people are going to migrate to the States. Guess what? That is already happening, especially before this reconstruction period.

So all of this idea that things that they said are gonna happen under independence are already occurring, and I think people, some people — not all of them, the vast majority of Puerto Ricans still want a relationship with the States — but some people say, 'Hey, I'm not scared any longer. I think that we should try new things. We need a new political relationship with the United States.'

What needs to happen to bring this era we're in now of direct federal oversight of Puerto Rico to a close? 

 Well, the same people that imposed the board here, they have to remove it. There's no way that Puerto Ricans can get rid of that. It was a federal law.

They said that to get rid of the board, the Puerto Rican government should go back to the credit market and at a reasonable interest rate, and the budget should be balanced for about four years. The two things already happened. But the board is putting their own terms to close the board. They're earning very good salaries, so I don't think anyone would like to close the entity that is paying you a high amount of money.

To that point, it's been reported that helping this board restructure the debt. The federal government originally estimated less than $400 million in costs, but clearly some people are making money here. With that in mind, what are the incentives to wind the whole thing down, in your opinion? Or are there not incentives to wind it down?

 I would like Latinos in the United States, and Puerto Ricans in particular, to use their political power in the States and say, 'Hey, Puerto Rico is still relevant.' That was done to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. A lot of people lobbied for Puerto Rico in the federal government, and I think that has to be done again.

 Otherwise, the board is not gonna let us here locally get rid of them. And even though the vast majority of the population rejects the board, and [Puerto Rican] politicians from all over the place, all political parties, are opposed to the board, I don't think it's gonna happen unless the government, unless Congress, says: 'Hey, this is the end of the board.'

The last time Georgelyss Montes saw her best friend, Angelo Mejía Meléndez, was four years ago, at a goodbye party before he left for the U.S.

"We were like, 'You are stupid for leaving us!" she joked.

Last week, she got word he was coming home, unexpectedly, as a deportee. Mejía Meléndez was one of 146 Venezuelan nationals after being deported from the U.S. on Wednesday.

Passengers on that plane, which included women and children, were being processed in a guarded hotel in La Guaira when , according to family members. The building they were in pancaked.

The family of Mejía Meléndez had planned to celebrate with him once back home. Instead, they had to spend days searching hospitals and morgues. Ultimately, they identified his body by a distinctive pizza tattoo on his arm.

"We grew up together," Montes said. "It's so hard."

Mejía Meléndez was building a life in Miami. He worked at a pier. He was happy to be in the city, near the ocean. In a recent voice note to his mom, Mejía Meléndez told her how much he loved her. He also shared that his bosses had bought a new Jet Ski, and that they named it after him.

"They told me I was doing a good job, that they loved me — things are going well!" he told his mother. "I love you so much — if I were to be born again, I would want you to be my mother."

Hoping for a sign of life

Of the 146 deportees aboard that flight, there are conflicting accounts of how many survived the earthquakes.

The Venezuelan agency in charge of transporting the deportees declined to tell NPR how many have survived. In a message through WhatsApp to NPR, the agency said families have been informed of the status of their loved ones — a statement some family members dispute.

Alonso Guanipa Toyo told NPR his brother, 32-year-old VĂ­ctor, is among the missing deportees.

"The government is not doing anything," Alonso Guanipa Toyo said. "My family is looking for him in the hospitals, in the shelters, in the morgues."

He said his brother appeared to be in a hospital, according to a database he searched. But as of Monday, VĂ­ctor had yet to be found.

Alonso Guanipa Toyo said he believes there are deportees alive under the rubble.

"If there's not a corpse, there's no dead (person)," Alonso Guanipa Toyo said.

His brother VĂ­ctor lived in Pecos, Texas, where he worked in construction during the day and as a rideshare driver at night.

"My brother was very humble," Alonso Guanipa Toyo said.

VĂ­ctor was detained by immigration authorities in Texas on June 12. He and his wife were at a nightclub when they were picked up.

Alonso Guanipa Toyo said his brother had no criminal record and was in the U.S. legally.

Alonso Guanipa Toyo said the first thing he did when he heard the news of the earthquakes was look up the building where the deportees were.

"I saw the building had collapsed," he said.

Still, he said his family continues to search for VĂ­ctor.

The unexpected result of a deportation

It's unclear whether the Trump administration will continue to deport Venezuelans post-earthquakes. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from NPR.

That angers Oswadeliz Nuñez, whose son Daniel Núñez remains missing after being deported.

"Venezuelans are not animals," she said. "They are humans, not criminals. My son paid taxes."

For almost five years, Daniel had been living in Jacksonville, Fla., where he worked in construction. Oswadeliz Nuñez says her son's only crimes were crossing the border illegally and a misdemeanor for driving without a license.

He was arrested by immigration authorities on his way to work in May.

"My biggest hope is that my son is alive," she said.

She said she briefly talked to him on the phone before the earthquakes struck. Daniel told her he had landed in Venezuela and was being processed.

"In those four minutes he told me a lot of things — that we were going to live in Venezuela together, that we were going to keep going," she said. "That happiness lasted 30 minutes."

Nearly a week later, Oswadeliz Nuñez says, "I don't have any more strength."

"At this point, we need help getting their bodies from under the rubble," she said. "We need their bodies."

Copyright 2026 NPR

MIAMI (AP) — More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors.

A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Caracas hours before Wednesday's earthquakes. On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights.

Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble from the hotel with about 20 other deportees who walked the streets looking for help. They saw people running, some naked and others barefoot as they emerged from the rubble of the building in La Guaira, one of the areas that was hardest hit in Wednesday's 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes.

"We walked about five kilometers, and I cried and cried … there was no communication," Portillo said in a phone interview from her home in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

They reached a National Guard building, where they had a chance to call relatives.

"I was born again; God gave me a second chance," said Portillo. "I am traumatized," she said after a pause, weeping.

The Venezuelan government says more than 1,700 people were killed.

They survived the earthquake the same day they were deported from the U.S.

Portillo was caught up in the Trump administration's drive for mass deportations. In May, ICE Flight Monitor tracked 288 deportation flights to 38 countries, including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile and the Ivory Coast.

The U.S. ran 12 deportation flights to Venezuela in May, operating three days a week, according to ICE Flight Monitor. Deportation flights to Venezuela resumed in February 2025 after a 13-month pause.

Portillo said the government took them to the Hotel Santuario La Llanada, where they underwent medical exams and got identification documents. They were told they would go home the next day.

Portillo was staying in a second floor room with 16 other women. She stepped onto a balcony to look at the sea and saw that the sky was black; it was very hot. She returned to the room, laid on a bed, and began to feel herself being shaken.

"I started hearing 'papa, papa papapa,', and I saw the women next to me start to fall," she said, describing the sounds from the earthquake. "They were all screaming for help."

And almost immediately, the second earthquake.

"I fall and end up buried and covered by a beam, but the shaking shifted everything where I was buried and I was able to get out," said Portillo, who has bruises all over her body.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for information from the AP.

A video from the Venezuelan government posted on social media showed images of the deportees being received by Venezuelan authorities upon their arrival at the Caracas airport on Wednesday.

Jenny Rodriguez, 24, told the Telemundo network that she was on the flight and taken to the hotel.

"I was trapped under the rubble. A colleague who had been on the same flight came by; I managed to free my hand from the debris, grabbed him by the trousers, and begged for help", she said. "Thanks to God — and to him — I was able to get out of there."

Liliana Rojas told Telemundo that she has been trying to locate her 33-year-old partner. The detention center where he was held in El Paso, Texas, says only told that he was deported.

"No one is giving an answer about anything," Rojas said.

Woman says she feels 'born again' after surviving

Portillo, who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico in November 2021 and said had an pending asylum claim, couldn't remember her children's phone number. She called her husband in the United States.

"I said to him, 'Cesar, I'm alive. Help me.' And my husband kept saying, 'It can't be,'" she said. "'I'm alive, I made it out of the rubble, I'm alive,' I told him."

Her husband called their children, who picked her up and were able to reunite with their mother the following night.

"I was born that day; on the 24th, I was born again," said Portillo, who lived in South Florida for more than four years.

Republican Miami Congresswoman MarĂ­a Elvira Salazar on Monday warned Venezuela's interim regime not to interfere with U.S. and international aid in the wake of that country's worst earthquake disaster in a century.

At the same time, Salazar urged President Donald Trump to halt for now any deportations of Venezuelans back to the hard-hit country — which, even before it suffered the two powerful quakes on north-central coast last Wednesday evening, was only starting to recover from economic collapse and the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history.

Venezuelan migrants who recently lost their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shield from deportation, for example, "should have the opportunity to stay for another 18 months and see what happens after," she said in answer to a question from SAąúĽĘ´«Ä±.

Salazar toured the Doral headquarters warehouse of the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission, or GEM — which the Trump administration on Monday said it will partner with, along with Walmart, to deliver earthquake relief to Venezuela.

Afterward, she blasted the government of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez for its widely criticized response to the quakes — which killed at least 1,500 people, injured thousands more and has left perhaps 50,000 missing, mostly in the coastal area of La Guaira just north of the capital, Caracas.

Monday morning another significant aftershock rattled Venezuela, measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale, though it was weaker than last week's back-to-back quakes of 7.2 and 7.5.

Salazar pointed to that emerged Monday morning showing Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who is wanted in the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges, blocking U.S. rescue and relief workers in La Guaira because they were reportedly interfering with an official video he was trying to make.

"The big challenge here is to tell Delcy, 'You cannot stop the aid coming from the United States, regardless of the source,'" Salazar said. "She cannot do that, because that is going to be a very black mark on her page."

READ MORE: In Doral, volunteers race against the clock to help Venezuela's earthquake victims

Venezuela's socialist regime has been more broadly condemned, however, for its apparent if not utter lack of financial and infrastructural preparedness for a calamity like this, which caused scores of apartment buildings and other edifices to collapse.

International corruption watchdogs have long warned of the billions of dollars for resources the regime and its cronies have plundered.

"How come these people did not invest resources to buy the equipment and everything necessary in order to be prepared for such a disaster?" Salazar asked.

"That shows you where their heart has been and where it is now."

Over the weekend, the Trump administration pledged $150 million in relief aid for Venezuela. But a big question is how much regime involvement the U.S. will allow in its use — particularly since Trump has praised Rodríguez for helping him take tacit control of Venezuela's large but moribund oil industry.

As Salazar spoke, dozens of local volunteer relief workers at the vast GEM warehouse in Doral gathered aid donations.

"Our goal is to get the aid directly to people in need — not the black market and not the government," said GEM's government affairs director Michael Kesti.

"The outpouring of support," Kesti added, "we have never seen this. I think every citizen in Doral has come out. We had 5,000 cars pull up with donations over the weekend."

Doral is the largest Venezuelan expat enclave in the U.S.

Doral Mayor Christi Fraga said the city itself decided to partner with GEM to make sure local donations go as directly as possible to victims and not official go-betweens.

"Venezuelans all over the world are calling and asking, 'How do we get aid to you?' Because they know we're making sure it gets on a plane to Venezuela and to the people who need it," she said.

Kesti told SAąúĽĘ´«Ä± this is likely the worst earthquake disaster GEM and other humanitarian nonprofits in the hemisphere have dealt with since the 2010 temblor in Haiti, which killed some 200,000 people.

Like the Haiti quake that struck near the capital, Port-au-Prince, Venezuela's was centered near a major city, Caracas.

As a result, Kesti said, GEM will soon have two aid flights a day going into Venezuela.

"People here right now volunteering and helping, they have a story — a friend or a relative they haven't received any communication from in Venezuela," said Doral City Councilman Rafael Pineyro, a Venezuela native.

Pineyro himself said relatives in La Guaira only escaped their apartment building just seconds before it collapsed and would have surely killed them.

As a result, Pineyro said he's joining Salazar in calling for the Trump administration to reinstate TPS for Venezuelans in the U.S.

Independent South Florida journalist Maria Alesia Sosa is used to difficult stories.

Growing up in Caracas, the 40-year-old Venezuelan native recalls her parents telling her the frightening story of the earthquake of 1967, a 6.6 magnitude quake that left her country’s generation terrified of another one.

As a reporter for Univision in Miami, she covered the catastrophic 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside that left 98 people dead. After having watched the terror unfold on the ground, she said that story always stuck with her.

Last week, Sosa traveled to Venezuela to visit relatives in Caracas — and Wednesday morning edited a commemorative video of the five-year anniversary of the Surfside tragedy.

That night, as she watched the World Cup on TV with her husband and children, the first of two massive earthquakes struck her home country.

The back-to-back tremors measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude rocked Venezuela, unleashing destruction across the capital and surrounding areas. As of Monday morning, authorities say at least 1,450 people have been killed, with more than 3,300 injured and 12,000 displaced.

For Sosa, the unfolding nightmare was a horrific collision of her past and her present.

"The sound is the most scary, terrifying, horrible thing," Sosa said, recalling the moments she and her family fled into their garden for safety. "The sound of the earth, and the windows and the doors banging, the lamps banging, everything in the kitchen just falling apart, everyone running."

Looking out at a landscape of collapsed buildings, it all felt terrifyingly familiar, Sosa told SAąúĽĘ´«Ä± in a telephone interview.

'Surfside a hundred times over’

"What I'm seeing here is like Surfside a hundred times over," Sosa said. "It's a déjà vu of the rubble, of the victims, of desperate families yelling and screaming trying to find survivors, and I just can't believe this is happening again."

The tragedy has also brought back memories of El Terremoto de ’67.

“We all grew up with that terrible story of the earthquake of '67. And we grew up in fear, expecting that one day it could happen again,” she said.

READ MORE:

• In Doral, volunteers race against the clock to help Venezuela's earthquake victims
• A strong aftershock rattles Venezuela as rescue workers race to find survivors
• From Surfside to South America: Miami-Dade’s elite search and rescue team deployed to Venezuela

Sosa said she and her immediate family are safe, but she says that the images circulating online don't capture the true gravity of the situation, especially for residents trapped in the rubble of flattened high-rise buildings.

"Social media cannot even show what it really is like on the ground," she said. "It's really way worse than what you are seeing in the media."

Sosa said Venezuela and its government is completely unequipped to handle a humanitarian emergency of this magnitude.

"The response has been insufficient. There is no heavy machinery, not enough rescuers and firemen. Agencies do not have resources at all. They have nothing," Sosa said. "This happened in the worst possible moment."

Frustration with rescue, recovery efforts

She expressed deep frustration over the lack of government mobilization, drawing a sharp contrast to how the state has deployed its resources in the past.

"There's an image that's being shared on social media of the huge movement and deployment of the military in 2014 and 2017, when the young were out in the streets protesting for freedom. The National Guard and all the state forces were out in the street shooting at the young people," Sosa said.

"But now, this is not what we're seeing. What we're seeing is volunteer rescuers and firemen using their hands to try to dig into that rubble pile and get someone out."

She was glad that, at the very least, Venezuela was finally visible, and several countries were sending aid and resources. On Friday, her family headed to La Guaira to deliver medical supplies in hospitals and help rescue efforts among the rubble.

Some of the heaviest damage and casualties were in that coastal region north of the capital Caracas, according to media reports.

With her experience as a reporter as her guide, Sosa said she wants to amplify the voices of those who needed rescuing, medical attention and resources.

“I will raise my voice and try to amplify those messages of the buildings that haven't got any rescue teams,” Sosa said. “We're planning on bringing resources down there and trying to repost on my social media and trying to raise awareness for those people that are being unheard.”

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — A strong aftershock jolted Venezuela early Monday following last week's devastating back-to-back earthquakes, as civilians and emergency responders kept combing through the ruins of fallen buildings for survivors.

The aftershock, which struck about 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Caraballeda on Venezuela's Caribbean coast at 7:01 a.m. local time, measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey. Colombia's geological survey put the magnitude at 5.1.

Jorge RodrĂ­guez, the leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said there were no immediate reports of additional damage from the quake, which sent residents in the capital of Caracas screaming into the streets.

"Here we are again, back in the street. I don't know when we'll have a moment of true peace," said Concepción Hernández, 51, who evacuated her apartment building in the Chacao municipality of Caracas.

Monday's tremor also convulsed the hard-hit port city of La Guaira, where local and international rescue teams have been racing against time since the twin earthquakes struck the northern state five days ago.

The government has reported 1,450 dead from the quakes as it faces growing criticism from Venezuelans that its response is inadequate and overshadowed by civilian-led efforts to rescue people buried under collapsed buildings. Thousands more have been reported missing.

READ MORE: Venezuela earthquakes: Tracking relatives and how to help with donations

Even as the likelihood of finding people alive diminished with each passing hour, rescuers continued to free some survivors from debris, offering anguished families a sliver of hope. The first 48 to 72 hours after a natural disaster are crucial to rescue efforts, though survival can be extended if people have access to food and water.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy RodrĂ­guez said late Sunday that even as the time threshold passed, the search for survivors would continue. More than 2,600 rescue workers from around the world had arrived with trained search dogs and machinery, the government said.