'We're going to keep going': Venezuelan quake rescuers soldier on

Two months after two huge earthquakes struck Venezuela and killed thousands, volunteer rescuer Domingo Pacheco still faces a mountain of work.

The 53-year-old reached the worst-hit coastal state of La Guaira in the immediate aftermath of the quakes and has been picking through the rubble ever since.

The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors hit within a minute of each other on June 24, killing over 6,500 people.

Pacheco has the unenviable task of looking for an unknown number of lifeless victims still buried under the debris, although he avoids thinking about the emotional impact.

The work is physically challenging, too.

One evening, after one of many exhausting days of digging through the detritus, he lost his breath and blacked out for a few seconds.

"The oxygen was slowly taken away from me until I kind of lost consciousness," Pacheco told AFP.

"Everything went blurry and I thought of my young son before asking myself, 'What's going on?'"

When the volunteer arrived in June, he went straight to work, searching for a little girl buried under a collapsed social housing complex.

He recalls a trapped family who had lived on the top floor, begging to be rescued during those first hours of confusion.

"There were people screaming, asking us to help them," he said. "I went where I was needed."

Pacheco volunteers with the Unified Rescue Group of Venezuela (GRUV), which depends on donations and has rescued 21 people alive and recovered 56 bodies.

Witnessing the determination of families who refuse to give up on loved ones still trapped under the impenetrable rubble has "profoundly impacted" him, he told AFP.

There are no official figures to show how many people remain missing after the quakes.

"When to close this chapter?" Pacheco asked.

"God willing, as soon as possible, so that everyone, so that those family members too, can find relief from the suffering they are going through, from not being able to recover their loved ones."

Frank Viloria met Pacheco and his GRUV colleagues in Playa Grande, where entire residential complexes crumbled against a backdrop of stunning sea views.

Viloria's sister and niece died when their eight-story building fell to pieces.

"When I see him, I'm happy," he said with a smile, shaking hands with Pacheco, who calls him "son."

"I'm very grateful to them. I feel a lot of respect and admiration; I can vouch for them because I saw how they work," the 38-year-old added.

The men hug when they say goodbye.

Located north of Caracas, La Guaira is usually a favorite weekend getaway spot for residents of the capital.

Its once touristy atmosphere has been replaced by tragedy these past few months, and thousands of people made homeless by the quakes now live in makeshift camps under difficult conditions.

"Sometimes I'm very sad; my mind is here...it's never at home" in Caracas, said Pacheco.

"We're going to keep going for as long as the body allows," he said.