Lucas Trejo, a 38-year-old defender from Córdoba who plays for Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira, was at Caracas’s Brígido Iriarte stadium waiting for the match against Deportivo Miranda when the ground began to shake. Two earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, struck Venezuela within hours. Hundreds of kilometers away, in Playa Grande, the building where his wife Yanina Maranella and their children Aarón and Ainhoa lived collapsed.
Since then, absolute silence. Trejo has been unable to make any contact with them and posted a plea for help on Instagram that immediately went viral among footballers, fans, and users across the region. In the post, he identified his relatives by their full names to help facilitate any leads among rescue teams.
The double quake left a preliminary toll of at least 164 dead and more than 900 injured, with rescue efforts still underway. By the end of the first hours, the whereabouts of Yanina, Aarón, and Ainhoa still had not been confirmed.
