Eleven days. That’s how long it took to find him. Willner Rivas, 31, captain of Venezuela’s national volleyball team, had been buried alongside his wife Mariángel Pérez and his son Theo, just one and a half years old, when a building collapsed in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, after the June 24 earthquakes.
On Sunday, July 5, Spain’s Club Voleibol Guaguas confirmed what his teammates had feared from day one: the three bodies were found under the rubble. Rivas had just signed with that team to fill the spot left by Cuban player Osmany Juantorena, and just a few months ago he had been named MVP of the Pan American Cup, the tournament where Venezuela was crowned champion.
The earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, left thousands of buildings destroyed and an official death toll of 3,342 across the country. Rivas was one of the most beloved faces in South American volleyball. Today, that country mourns an entire family that remained beneath the same rubble left behind when the earth shook.