Rescue teams on Thursday pulled a survivor from the rubble left by the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, eight days after the disaster.
As the official death toll approached 2,300 and a vast number of people remained missing, the rescue of security guard Hernan Gil, 43, after so long beneath the debris was described as a miracle.
Gil had been trapped inside the guard room of the building where he worked in the Catia La Mar area of La Guaira state in northern Venezuela.
Before his rescue, Gil's wife Gosbeimar Gonzalez told Agence France-Presse: "It's a miracle." She added: "I am amazed — it is the first time I have seen this many countries come together to save a single person."
Teams from seven countries — Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico — worked without pause to reach him.
The rescue operation was complex, as the participating teams had to avoid triggering further collapses of nearby damaged buildings.
"It was not easy to reach the exact point where the victim was located," Cristian Vera, the leader of the Chilean rescue team, told AFP.
Yet despite a handful of miraculous rescues — including the discovery of a 3-year-old child on Tuesday, six days after the disaster — hope of finding more survivors alive was beginning to fade.
No signs of life
The letter "D" — short for "deceased" — has been marked on the majority of collapsed buildings in La Guaira, the worst-hit city located north of the capital Caracas, indicating they have been searched with no signs of life found.
The death toll rose to 2,295, according to an announcement made on Wednesday by National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez, who noted that more than 11,000 people were injured in the disaster and that approximately 13,000 are now without shelter.
Tens of thousands of people remain listed as missing.
Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodriguez declared on Wednesday a seven-day period of national mourning for the victims of the two earthquakes, effective from Wednesday evening.
The two successive earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude and considered among the worst seismic disasters in Latin American history, caused entire residential complexes to collapse on 24 June, triggering intensive search-and-rescue operations for survivors trapped beneath the rubble.
The country is also undergoing a political transition, six months after the United States removed former president Nicolas Maduro from power.
A struggle to survive
Attention is now turning to the plight of earthquake survivors, large numbers of whom are without shelter as food and water supplies begin to run out.
Reports of looting have also emerged. On Wednesday, four police officers were arrested after residents caught them red-handed stealing valuables from the rubble.
Queues for aid are growing longer by the day, with many people depending on volunteers and donations for their sustenance.
"Here, we received nothing until last night when they started bringing water," said Fatima Biroutan, 56, who has been sleeping with her family in a car park since their apartment in a high-rise residential complex in La Guaira collapsed.
The World Food Programme launched an appeal on Tuesday for $50 million to provide food to approximately 500,000 people in Venezuela for three months.
Disease risk
Meanwhile, fears of disease outbreaks are growing.
World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said health services in Venezuela are under "extreme pressure."
He warned of "an increased risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases" such as measles and diphtheria, due to low vaccination rates before the earthquake.
The two earthquakes are estimated to have damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings, according to a preliminary assessment of satellite data published by NASA.