Teens who fled Venezuela after deadly quakes caught in another disaster in Colombia
Deivi Delfín and his brother moved to Colombia after a quake in Venezuela killed their mother, but were caught in another deadly disaster.
Deivi, 15, and his 17-year-old brother, Winder, who previously escaped two deadly earthquakes in Venezuela, have now endured a third disaster in Colombia. "The earthquake is haunting me," Deivi Delfín stated.
The brothers, who told the BBC they "no longer felt like children" after witnessing unrecognizable corpses, had recently relocated to Cali, Colombia, to live with their father, Deivid. Their move on Friday came after their home in La Guaira, Venezuela—the area most severely impacted by the twin quakes on June 24—was reduced to rubble, claiming the lives of three family members, including their mother. Just three days later, they experienced another earthquake.
In late June, the two teenagers had gone to a beach on Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Winder had wanted to bring their 10-year-old brother, Moissés, but he was grounded. "I kept insisting but my mum just wouldn't budge," Winder recalled. As they were returning home on the evening of the 24th, earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck a mere 39 seconds apart. The brothers embraced and closed their eyes. Upon reopening them, they found everything shrouded in dust and debris.
When they reached their home, they discovered their 12-story apartment building had collapsed, trapping their mother Yusmani, grandmother Carmen, and brother beneath a "mountain of concrete." Winder lamented, "My world came crashing down." The Venezuelan government reported that the earthquakes killed over 6,300 people, with the number of missing still unconfirmed.
Winder and Deivi joined the rescue efforts, enduring three days without sleep or food. Their father, Deivid, who was in Colombia at the time, was unable to locate them for three days after returning to Venezuela. Once reunited, they began a nearly month-long search for their family members.
Despite the risks, Deivid could not dissuade his sons from searching the rubble. As teenagers, they were able to navigate narrow spaces, crawling between concrete slabs illuminated by handheld torches or mobile phones to guide rescuers. "By that point, I didn't feel like a child anymore," Deivi recounted.
They gradually uncovered fragments of their family life: Moissés's shorts, Yusmani's Bible, and an unfinished shopping list, indicating they were nearing their former home. The following day, Deivi spotted a piece of fabric he recognized as his grandmother's floral skirt. Soon after, firefighters confirmed they had found a woman's body.
Winder was the first to identify his mother's body, still wearing a plastic bag she had used to dye her hair before they left for the beach. He approached her, staying by her side for a few moments. Her body could not be immediately recovered as it was pinned by a concrete slab. While removing it, they discovered Moissés, still holding onto his mother. At the sight of his son, Deivid collapsed. "When his little head fell into my hands... I broke down," he said.
After burying their family members, the brothers moved in with their father in a modest, working-class neighborhood of low-rise houses on the northeastern outskirts of Cali, Colombia. They expressed hopes for a life of hard work and study to make their mother proud.
However, shortly after settling into their new home, they experienced a familiar sensation on Monday. Colombia had been struck by its strongest earthquake this century—a magnitude 7.4, which killed several hundred people nationwide, with many more still missing. Cali was once again among the hardest-hit areas.
Deivi, who was asleep when the tremor began, initially thought he was dreaming due to the gentle movement. As it intensified, he got out of bed and ran downstairs, as did his brother. Outside, they gripped a metal gate, waiting for the shaking to subside. Their father, who was on the street at the time, immediately thought of his sons and rushed back to the house, but they were not there. A neighbor informed him she had seen them leave, and he continued searching the streets until he found them outside the barbershop where he worked. His sons tried to reassure him, saying, "Dad, stay calm. We've been through this before."