CARACAS: Antonella Molina, her nephew Pedro Molina and a group of friends set out at 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday, hands full of flyers, walking carefully through the rubble that remains throughout La Guaira after two catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes 10 weeks ago.
Their mission is to find 18-year-old Andrés Molina — Antonella's nephew and Pedro's cousin — who they haven't heard from since the double earthquakes hit Venezuela on June 24. Andrés is among tens of thousands who remain missing, according to an independent account, far surpassing the government estimate of 1,500.
Weeks before, Antonella and other relatives pulled the bodies of Andrés' mother and brother from the collapsed remains of their 10-story apartment building that collapsed in La Guaira, the coastal area just north of the capital Caracas that was one of the hardest hit. The building once housed more than 30 people but there was no sign of Andrés, not even the backpack he always carried.
Neighbors told the family they have seen Andrés wandering the destruction collecting scrap metal; they hold out hope that he survived.
"There are a lot of things that give us hope," Antonella said. "And one of those is love."
Searching without government help
Government figures of 6,500 dead and 1,500 have been widely questioned by people on the ground, although the Venezuelan government has said its response was quick and statistics are "rigorously verified."
With little trust in authorities, Andrés' family and friends are the ones taking charge to get the answers they need.
"We've never had support from the government to help us find the people disappeared. Never," Antonella said.
And they are determined to keep searching on their own until they find him.
In the days after the quakes, neighbors said they saw Andrés wandering around with an apparent head injury. The family called shelters, hospitals and morgues but there was no news of Andrés.
They turned to putting up flyers around the area with his photo and a number to call. The calls rolled in, reporting sightings at a nearby golf course, park or restaurant. But Andrés was never there when they showed up. When they would ask around, people told them stories of seeing the young man in the photo, often trying to give food to cats, his favorite animal.
Just the day before the search, police told Antonella they saw him collecting scrap material nearby, further fueling their optimism.
Setting out to find him again
On the Saturday of the renewed search, about 15 friends and relatives walked the streets, past the busted windows and collapsed walls as the noise of ongoing construction equipment rumbled in the background.
Antonella approached neighbors and construction crews with a warm, Venezuelan greeting of "how are you, mi amor?" She explained her hunt for information about her nephew.
A construction worker said he saw him near the golf course. Another woman sitting outside on a plastic chair said she saw the flyers but not Andrés. Another man thought he may have seen him at a nearby McDonald's. But when they said he had tattoos, Antonella knew it wasn't her nephew.
The search has been complicated by a family dispute between Andrés' mother and father — Antonella's brother and Pedro's uncle — that has kept them apart for years. The family tried to stay in touch, but the relationship deteriorated. Andrés' father has been among those searching for him.
Pedro began talking with his cousin over WhatsApp in the months before the earthquake, but they never met in person, since Pedro lives about six hours away in the state of Anzoategui.
Still, Pedro wants his cousin to know he is not alone, even though his mother and brother are no longer with him.
"We don't know how he must feel if he is alive," Pedro said.
Ending with anger, pain, sadness
During the afternoon of the search, Antonella and Pedro approach a young woman and handed her a flyer.
"Were you his neighbor?" Antonella asked.
"Yes, from the house next door," she answered. "My mom was friends with his mom."
But she did not have any information on where Andrés is now.
"If anything, I'll write this number," she said. "Good luck."
Antonella has come to believe that perhaps Andrés doesn't want to be found. Maybe that is why she keeps finding the flyers damaged with a tear down through his face.
The search finished as always at a nearby McDonald's around 10 p.m., a few hours earlier than usual because Antonella hurt her arm.
"At the end of each search, I always feel anger, helplessness, pain, sadness. Even despair," Antonella said. "Because it's so many days, so much effort, so many hours walking, searching, asking questions."
"And we end up with the same answers. They saw him, they saw him, they saw him. But not having him present in our arms has been a very hard blow," she said.
But she will keep looking until she knows Andrés is safe.
"I have to continue until I find my nephew," Antonella said.