Argentine footballer loses wife, two children in Venezuela earthquake

The wife and two children of Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo have tragically lost their lives following powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela, as reported by his team on Sunday.

Trejo, who is a player for Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira, a second-division team in Venezuela, spent three days searching for his wife Yanina and children Aaron and Ainhoa amidst the rubble before rescue workers were able to recover their bodies, according to reports from US media.

In a post on Instagram, the team expressed its deep sorrow, stating, "Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira deeply mourns the irreparable loss of our player’s wife and children," and included a photo of the family.

At the age of 38, Trejo was attending a team training camp in Caracas when the earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, struck on Wednesday evening, as reported by CNN.

He promptly returned to his home in La Guaira, the state that suffered the most from the disaster, only to encounter “a horrific scene,” as described by Trejo’s brother-in-law, Ricardo Ardiles, to CNN.

“He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been,” Ardiles recounted.

According to Venezuelan authorities, nearly 1,500 individuals have perished, and tens of thousands remain unaccounted for as of Sunday.

On the same day, Club Sport Marítimo La Guaira expressed its profound grief over the loss of Trejo’s family in a social media post, sharing a photo of the four together, with Trejo resting one hand on his daughter’s shoulder and the other around his wife.

“Lucas, you are not alone. Your family at Maritime La Guaira is with you,” the post stated.

The disaster that occurred last week, described by the US Geological Survey as a rare “doublet,” involved two significant earthquakes occurring just 39 seconds apart, and has also resulted in the deaths and injuries of several soccer players in the country.

Among the hundreds of victims was Yimvert Berroteran, a promising young talent, as confirmed by the Venezuelan national team and the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) on Friday.

The 18-year-old had recently participated in the U-17 World Cup in Doha and had played for the U-20 national team shortly before the tragedy.

The earthquake also took the lives of young players Víctor Palacios and Razan Sijaa, according to reports.

The partner of another player, Héctor Bello, died while protecting their toddler, Bello said Saturday on social media.

“I’ll make sure to remind our baby girl how wonderful you were and how much you loved her,” Bello wrote in a post.

Tourists and foreign residents are also among the dead, including eight Chinese nationals, Chinese state media said Sunday.