Rescue teams from seven countries - Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States - managed to rescue alive a man who survived the two earthquakes that shook Venezuela more than a week ago.

Emergency teams located security guard Hernán Gil on Saturday under the rubble of a multi-story parking lot in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira state, but only in the last few hours had they managed to establish visual contact with him.

Despite having been buried under very unstable rubble and nine meters deep for 8 days, rescuers stated that Gil, in his 40s, remained in good spirits and even encouraged those who were trying to save him.

His wife called his survival “a miracle,” although the work was not easy.

Some sections of the access ducts built to reach him collapsed on several occasions, which highlighted the dangers that this work implied both for the rescuers and for Gil himself.

“I have 22 years of experience and this rescue is the most complex and technical that I have had to undertake,” Ezequiel Gallardo, liaison officer for the Chilean firefighters, told BBC Mundo.

A paramedic from the Costa Rican Red Cross, Allan Madrigal, was able to say a few words to him: “What I wanted was to simply tell him that God has a great purpose for him,” he told BBC Mundo.

As of this Thursday, almost 2,300 people have been confirmed dead in the earthquakes that hit Venezuela on June 24, and tens of thousands remain missing.

Days of intense work

Gil was located under the rubble three days after the earthquake.

The security guard was in a small concrete booth, located in the basement of the parking lot adjacent to the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in Catia La Mar, when the two consecutive earthquakes occurred.

But that small space protected him: "It functioned as a sarcophagus. It was able to remain these first days until we arrived," Gallardo said.

Wagner Leiva, head of emergency response for the Costa Rican Red Cross, recalled the moment: "We were removing and cutting some slabs when they told us that there seemed to be someone alive (...) we went down to the basement and one of our colleagues, after calling and listening, detected that someone was indeed responding."

During the last night of his confinement among the ruins, the search teams had finally managed to establish visual contact with Gil.

In images recorded by a small camera inserted into the rubble where he was trapped, a Chilean firefighter was heard asking Gil to turn his head towards the camera.

He had a red eye and was wearing a mask, which the rescuers had previously given him through a small hole to protect him from the dust and debris generated by the rescue efforts.

The firefighter also asked him to put on protective goggles to protect his eyes while rescuers continued to carefully remove the debris around him.

“We were able to hydrate him through a probe that we managed to pass,” explained Gallardo, who describes this operation as the “most complex” that he has had to perform in 22 years as a rescuer.

“Not a crushed nail”

Wagner Leiva told Reuters that, given the precarious nature of the rescue efforts, they had to proceed very slowly.

"As the days went by, we managed to reach him and give him water. It took almost three days until we were able to give him the first sip. Last night, at approximately 10:00 p.m. (local time), we managed to establish physical contact with Hernán."

Ricardo Arias, from the Costa Rican Red Cross, reported that when Gil was found under the ruins, he was stable. “He told us that he doesn't even have a crushed nail,” he said.

;arco Antonio Franco, of the Mexican Red Cross, described Gil as “a happy man.”

Before the rescue finally took place, Franco told the Mexican news site Milenio that the survivor “even asked for hydrating drinks with specific flavors that he likes,” adding that, “of course, we obliged.”

"He himself motivates us and tells us to keep going. He recognizes our team members and says: 'It's good that they came back and that they are with me again.'"

According to Franco, the rescuers and Gil had a constant conversation about his family and the difficulty of the rescue throughout the entire process.

For paramedic Allan Madrigal, this rescue meant a collective triumph.

"This is not about a single team, this is about all the people, from those who came to offer us food and water, to security, logistics, search and rescue teams, everyone. It is an achievement for the people of Venezuela," he expressed with enthusiasm.

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