Marianella Cremi is sitting on a sidewalk next to her mother, a few blocks from the Petunia building in Caracas, where her brother Juan Diego was watching the game between Brazil and Scotland when the roof collapsed on him during the two earthquakes that shook Venezuela this Wednesday.

In that match, Juan Diego Cremi was going for Brazil, although he is actually going to Portugal in the World Cup to honor his admiration for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Marianella, 25, describes in the present tense the sports preferences of her younger brother, 23, because she is “totally certain” that Juan Diego survived even though he is still under the rubble.

At 6:04 pm on Wednesday, June 24, just four minutes after the start of the game, a first earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook Venezuela, followed by a second earthquake of 7.5 just 39 seconds later.

This phenomenon, known by geophysicists as a “seismic doublet,” has caused dozens of deaths and thousands of injuries.

“My heart tells me that my brother is alive,” says Marianella in a WhatsApp call from a street in Los Palos Grandes, one of the most affected areas of Caracas in the north of the Venezuelan capital.

It's just after 12:00 pm. It's been about 18 hours since the Petunia building collapsed.

Picks, shovels and masks

Since her mother prefers not to go near the ruins, Marianella stays with her while her father, Mario Cremi, remains side by side with the rescuers searching for Juan Diego and his girlfriend, Sabrina Bolognesi, 22 years old.

“As they know that my son is there with his girlfriend, they have given me preference and let me pass,” says Marianella and Juan Diego's father. “I am very grateful to everyone.”

Every now and then, the father returns and updates them on the progress: a crane finally arrived to move the heaviest sheets of concrete, although the rescuers ask for pickaxes, shovels, hydraulic jacks, levers, face masks, helmets and protective glasses.

Otherwise, they would search with their fingernails.

When Marianella told her friends about this situation, they went to buy supplies at the hardware stores they found open, and even volunteered in the search.

“They told my dad that Los Topos de México are here,” says Marianella, referring to the group of first responders recognized for intervening in assistance work in international crises.

Juan Diego and Sabrina were accompanied by Sofía Bolognesi, Sabrina's younger sister, and Victoria Delgado, a friend of the group.

Thanks to staying close to the rescuers, Marianella's father met the man who rescued Sofía from the rubble during the early hours of the morning.

“I personally took her out,” the lifeguard reportedly told him. “His legs were stuck, it took us a lot to get his legs out but we managed.”

Victoria was also rescued. “Only Juan Diego and Sabrina are missing,” says Marianella. “We have faith and trust in God that we will find them alive.”

“Lists and more lists”

Marianella and her parents were in Acarigua, 324 kilometers from Caracas, when they saw the videos of the collapse of the Petunia building on social networks.

The three got into the car and drove for more than four hours, until they arrived in Caracas at midnight.

At first they saw a list of rescued people that included the names of Juan Diego and Sabrina. But since they couldn't find them, they began touring health centers to find them.

“We went to the Domingo Luciani Hospital, the Pérez de León Hospital, the El Ávila Clinic, Salud Chacao, the Sanatrix Clinic, and La Floresta,” details Marianella. “It was a disaster, there were desperate people screaming, running… There were lists and more lists.”

"But none of them had my brother's name."

When she learned that Victoria had been rescued, Marianella contacted her to find out what had happened. Victoria told him that as soon as the first earthquake began, they were rushing down the stairs from the 6th to the 2nd floor when the roof collapsed.

Juan Diego and Sabrina were behind Victoria and in front of Sofía, so Marianella doesn't quite understand why they haven't been found.

However, rescuers gave encouraging news while she and her parents waited for news.

Not only did they hear screams coming from under the rubble, but someone who remains trapped on the Petunia sent a WhatsApp message to his family.

This news reinforces Marianella's conviction that she will fulfill the plan she had prepared with her brother the last time they saw each other at her graduation as an administrator: to watch the World Cup final together in Acarigua.

“I wrote something to my brother that I didn't show him, a text to thank him that he taught me everything I know about soccer,” says Marianella.

“I'm sure that if I didn't show it to him, it's because he's going to read it when we meet again.”