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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.

Published August 14, 2026, 8:02 AM
Updated August 14, 2026, 8:31 AM5.1K
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Teens who fled Venezuela after deadly quakes caught in another disaster in Colombia

"The earthquake is haunting me," Deivi Delfín says.

The 15-year-old feels like he and his brother, Winder, have been chased by tremors these past few months, having lived through two that struck with devastating effect in Venezuela, only to get caught up in another this week after moving to Colombia.

He tells the BBC that he and his brother, 17, no longer felt like children, having witnessed corpses damaged beyond recognition.

After their home in La Guaira - the area of Venezuela hardest hit by the twin quakes on 24 June - was reduced to a pile of rubble, killing three family members including their mother, they moved to Cali, Colombia, where their father works, on Friday.

Three days later, they felt the ground shake again.

Back at the end of June, the two teenagers had gone to the beach on Venezuela's Caribbean coastline. Winder wanted to take their 10-year-old brother Moissés, but he was grounded.

"I kept insisting but my mum just wouldn't budge," he says.

As they were heading home on the evening of the 24th, earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck just 39 seconds apart. The brothers hugged and shut their eyes. When they reopened them, everything was covered in dust and debris.

When they arrived home, they saw the 12-storey apartment building had collapsed, trapping their mother Yusmani, grandmother Carmen and brother under a mountain of concrete.

"My world came crashing down," Winder says.

The earthquakes killed more than 6,300 people, according to the Venezuelan government. There is still no clear official figure for the number of people missing.

Winder and Deivi joined rescue efforts, but for three days had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. Their father, Deivid, who was in Colombia at the time, was unable to find them for three days after returning to Venezuela.

When he eventually found his sons, they began a search for their family members that would last nearly a month.

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