Argentine center back Lucas Trejo, 38, lost his wife Yanina Maranella and their two children, Aaron and Ainhoa, when twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela's northern coast on Wednesday, collapsing the apartment building where his family lived in Playa Grande, La Guaira. A 74-hour search by firefighters, military personnel, and volunteers ended this weekend with the recovery of all three bodies from the debris. The disaster has put a human face on a catastrophe that has left nearly 50,000 people missing across the affected region.
A Race Through the Rubble
Trejo was with his club, Sport Maritimo de La Guaira, in Caracas when the two earthquakes hit. Upon learning that the Playa Grande building had collapsed, he traveled immediately to the disaster zone to join the search. In the early hours of the crisis, Trejo posted to Instagram that the building had fallen and that he had no information about his family, asking followers to pray and to share the message in case anyone had seen them. He wrote that he wanted to believe they had not been inside at the time.
His father and brother made the journey from Argentina to assist rescuers working through the wreckage. After 74 hours, crews recovered the bodies of Yanina Maranella and the couple's children, Aaron and Ainhoa Trejo, bringing the agonizing search to its worst possible conclusion.
A Football Community in Mourning
Club Sport Maritimo de La Guaira confirmed the deaths in a statement on Sunday, expressing grief over the loss of Maranella and the children, and calling for peace for their souls and comfort for Trejo and his loved ones.
The tragedy drew an immediate outpouring of support from across South American football. Fellow Argentine footballer Edson Tortolero, described as a close friend of Trejo's, mourned the family's deaths publicly, writing that his heart had broken into a thousand pieces and that no words could ease so much pain. Tortolero called on God to give Trejo the strength to endure what he described as an unimaginable loss.
The Wider Catastrophe
The Trejo family is among the victims of an earthquake disaster that continues to unfold along Venezuela's northern coast. Emergency and recovery crews remain on the ground in the affected areas. Reports indicate 33 people were rescued from the rubble, but with nearly 50,000 still unaccounted for, the scale of the humanitarian crisis remains staggering. The window for finding survivors has been narrowing with each passing day since Wednesday's twin strikes, and recovery operations are expected to continue across the region.