São Paulo rescue teams were working in Venezuela on Friday, July 3, to search for Félix Tovar, a 70-year-old Venezuelan man with permanent residence in Brazil who disappeared after earthquakes hit the country last week.
The operation is focused on the rubble of a bakery in La Guaira, a coastal state near Caracas and the main airport serving Venezuela’s capital. According to single-source reporting from CNN Brasil, firefighters and Civil Defense agents from São Paulo have been removing debris at the site since Friday morning and had no scheduled time to end the search.
Search in La Guaira
São Paulo’s Civil Defense said on social media that its personnel were working at a bakery that collapsed during the earthquake in La Guaira. The agency also published video from a rescuer showing technology equipment brought to support the operation, though the report did not specify the devices in detail.
Tovar’s case has drawn attention in Brazil because of his family ties and long residence in the country. He is Venezuelan, but had lived as a permanent resident in Brazil for nearly two decades and split his life between the two countries.
His son, Brazilian-Venezuelan Daniel Medina, told CNN Brasil that the family has been trying to locate him amid the aftermath of the disaster. Medina said his father had traveled to Venezuela a few months ago after spending about a year and a half in Brazil.
Family’s Account
Tovar lived in Caracas, but had been in La Guaira for several days. According to Medina, he planned to take a flight on Friday, June 26, to visit his daughter, Elibel, and a grandson in Chile.
Medina said La Guaira had deep family significance for his father. Because the area is close to the airport, Tovar was staying at a guesthouse there before his planned trip.
The family began looking for information after the tremors struck Venezuela on the night of Wednesday, June 24. Medina and his sister sought details on where their father had gone and tried to gather donations for civilian volunteers working in the rubble, which Medina described as taking place amid a limited official response.
Based on information the family received from a guesthouse employee, Tovar had left shortly before the earthquakes to eat at La Almendrina bakery, in the Playa Grande area. Medina also said the family managed to register a signal from his father’s phone at 7:19 p.m. on Wednesday, in a location consistent with the bakery’s surroundings.
The report did not state whether rescue teams had found signs of Tovar by Friday afternoon. São Paulo’s Civil Defense said teams remained at the site as the search continued.