From Venezuelan Quake to Colombian Shock: Teen Brothers Face Successive Disasters
The 15‑year‑old Deivi Delfín, a refugee who fled a deadly Venezuelan quake, tells the BBC that the tremor still haunts him. The sisters of his family were left in rubble, and three days after the ominous 24 June quakes the brothers had found themselves in a new city – Cali, Colombia – only to be rattled again by a 7.4‑magnitude tremor.
Deivi and his 17‑year‑old brother Winder had spent the summer in La Guaira, where a twin 7.2 and 7.5‑magnitude earthquake hit in quick succession. The 12‑storey apartment collapsed, leaving their mother, grandmother, and a younger brother trapped under concrete. The brothers and their father launched a desperate search, eventually buying out the rubble and locating a body and a lost child. After the family sent the roped‑in survivors home, they moved into a modest house in the north‑eastern outskirts of Cali.
The relief was short‑lived. Colombia’s strongest earthquake of the century struck Cali, sending the already‑scarred brothers to the brink of depression and death. The tremor crushed buildings, killed hundreds, and left thousands missing, reminding the Delfíns that the world had repeatedly altered their lives in one day. The brothers, hardened by weeks of searching with no bed or food, embraced the tragedy – adopting the mantra "I didn’t feel like a child anymore" – to survive.
By that point, their father Deivid had gone back to Caracas after losing contact with them. My days of waiting for an answer turned to nights outside the barbershop where he worked, and the brothers reassured the father with words that they had survived this before, hoping to find a new life in a country that had already heard of their resilience.
The story underlines not only the dire risks faced by refugees who must flee natural disasters, but also the enduring plight that arrives when one crisis follows another. Ferromedical support remains critical as victims like Deivi and Winder search for missing family members, and the world watches as their fragile families rebuild once again.
