Reporter's Notebook: In the earthquake rubble, the determination of ordinary Venezuelans

The powerful back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week are a national tragedy. Tens of thousands remain missing and countless others have lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones.

Yet amid the devastation, what stands out is the determination of ordinary Venezuelans. Volunteers, translators, neighbors and community groups showed up because they believed someone had to help.

Sitting in the airport, preparing to leave a country I had never visited before, I remember the kindness of the people. Everywhere we went, they welcomed us. Venezuelans reached out online from across the country and abroad, often surprised that a major American news network was reporting from Venezuela and that we were able to work freely.

During our time on the ground, we were not prevented from reporting. In fact, there was remarkably little official presence. Ordinary people appeared to be stepping in because they felt the government was not doing enough.

Again and again, families told us they had been promised government assistance that never arrived. Relatives said they were assured heavy machinery would be brought in to clear rubble and recover loved ones. In many cases, the equipment either failed to arrive or arrived without the diesel needed to operate.

While families watched precious time slip away, rescue teams from abroad were reportedly redirected away from some sites, told by the police or the military: No, you can't come here, you must go somewhere else.

It's in this kind of dead-eyed bureaucracy where the authorities are simply used to saying no, where their instinct is to say no to people, to repress them, to stop them from having agency.

In a situation like this, people need agency, they should be helped and encouraged to help themselves.

Still, what I will remember most are the people.

There was Domingo, standing outside the collapsed building where he thinks his sister may have died. He told us he had been on a video call with her before the earthquake struck. He watched his young nephew bring her the alert warning of an impending earthquake. He watched them embrace and then the connection was lost.

He believes he saw the last moments of his sister and nephew alive. Days later, the family still had no answers about whether they had survived or if their bodies had recovered from under the rubble.

There was also Sean Butler, of the Los Angeles Fire Department, leading an American search-and-rescue team. Despite the destruction, he remained convinced more survivors could be found. His team looked for signs of life beneath collapsed buildings and spoke of the void spaces that might sustain trapped victims for days.

For families searching desperately for loved ones, that optimism became a lifeline.

Then there was Dayana Patiño and her newborn son, Juan David, just 18 days old. He survived more than 30 hours trapped beneath the rubble because his mother was determined to keep him alive.

When we met her in the hospital, Diana was bruised, scratched, and recovering from a broken knee. Her son was unharmed, not a scratch on him.

But for all the extraordinary stories of survival, and we will continue to see those, this has really been a story about Venezuelans doing it for themselves.

Among those we spoke to, there was a widespread view that in a country with stronger institutions, buildings may be less likely to fail, and emergency responses could be swifter and more coordinated.

The question now is whether Venezuela will allow civil society to organize and support recovery efforts, as is common in many democracies, or whether the government will continue to insist that it has done all it can and dismiss calls for greater transparency and accountability.

As I leave, I am thinking about those who have lost everything and will need support for months or years to come, and whether their government will be the ones to help them.

But I leave with one certainty, Venezuela is filled with active, committed and courageous people. In the face of immense loss, they have shown an extraordinary willingness to help one another.

That is what more than anything else, what I will remember.