LOS ANGELES: After her parents went missing under the rubble of their Venezuela apartment building, Kelly Granado Montano spent her days here “lost, worried, on the phone,” her body in one country, her mind in another.
“The desperation, the pain, and the anguish grew — from not knowing” their fate, she said.
She was among the more than one million Venezuelans living in the United States who watched one of the worst disasters to hit the South American country unfold from afar.
The powerful back-to-back earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24 killed more than 6,500 people, left an untold number missing and damaged thousands of buildings.
As the news overtook social media feeds and family WhatsApp chats, survivor’s guilt, anger toward Venezuelan authorities and a devastating feeling of powerlessness overcame many in the diaspora, a group whose numbers doubled to 1.2 million between 2019 to 2024, as people sought relief primarily from economic hardship.
More than two months later, some Venezuelans in the US still navigate the earthquakes’ aftermath — confronting loss and leading recovery efforts — against a backdrop of deepening uncertainty in both countries, largely tied to White House policies.
As President Donald Trump tightens his grip on Venezuela’s domestic affairs following the stunning US military operation that deposed then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, his administration is narrowing paths to remain in the US, ending programs that allow more than 700,000 Venezuelans to live and work here legally.
Some immigrants feel a responsibility to keep shining light on Venezuela’s ongoing needs and unique challenges. “People think we are fine, but we are not,” said Dariela Merchan, an emergency room nurse in Austin, Texas.
Four Venezuelans living in the US shared how they experienced the last two months, and what their futures might hold. This story is a collaboration with Caplin News in Miami and Phoenix-based Conecta Arizona.
A restaurant owner searched for her parents from Los Angeles
Granado Montano called her parents over and over the evening of June 24, but there was no answer.
Marina, 66, and Jesús, 80, had last been seen in the underground parking of the building where they kept a beach apartment, about to leave from a family vacation. The 10-story building in the coastal state of La Guaira had completely collapsed.
Granado Montano, 43, last saw her parents 11 years ago. Unable to leave the US, and with so little help from Venezuelan authorities, looking for her parents alongside relatives and volunteers on the ground became “an odyssey.”
She fundraised for the search efforts and pleaded on social media for more help to reach their building, one of 190 that completely collapsed. A group searching for their loved ones spent thousands hiring a machine to move debris, to little avail. Progress began when someone donated an excavator and a drone operator helped locate missing remains.
In the midst of everything, Granado Montano turned her Los Angeles restaurant, Full Arepas, into a relief hub, filling shipping containers with donations to be sent to Venezuela. “Knowing we are helping people who are going through something similar … it brings me a little relief,” she said.
And so 57 days passed, until the afternoon of Aug. 19. Granado Montano was at work when a cousin sent her a video of her parents’ van, covered in rubble.
Inside, volunteers found her mother and father; her cousin and her 9-year-old daughter; her daughter’s friend; her cousin’s boyfriend and his 13-year-old son. Her father had his seat belt on.
Learning they’d been found was “bittersweet,” she said. Her family had been recovered, but “it wasn’t the way we had wanted – alive.”
She processes one day at a time – keeping busy at the restaurant and establishing a foundation to continue helping Venezuelans. Unable to attend the memorial for her parents in Venezuela, Granado Montano and her sister held their own service at a Los Angeles church.
“They were together for 45 years and into eternity,” said Granado Montano. “Because they were found just as I had hoped they would be. Together.”
An Austin, Texas nurse ships medical supplies between shifts
Dariela Merchan longed to put her medical skills to use on the ground. But an expired Venezuelan passport prevented the emergency room nurse from returning to the country she first left 14 years, a common issue after Venezuelan consulates in the US shuttered years ago.
With her father and sister safe in Venezuela, her concern shifted to overwhelmed and underresourced medical workers, and the patients who badly needed their help. The health care system was already so weakened before the earthquakes that medications were scarce and a hospital’s electricity and water could go out at any time.
“They’re trying to survive and trying to work with what they have,” said Merchan, 28. She asked doctor friends in Venezuela what they needed. They told her, “Literally anything.”
A prolific content producer on TikTok whose nursing-related videos sometimes yield millions of views, Merchan called on her network there. She connected health care workers with platforms where they could volunteer free telehealth sessions for those affected. A single TikTok post garnered 500 signups, she said.
When Merchan called on brands to contribute, a medical apparel company mailed her 200 sets of new scrubs. Wary of theft by officials or others, she resolved to ship the scrubs door-to-door to a health nonprofit working in the hard-hit state of La Guaira. She crowdfunded part of the $1,200 shipping fee, covering the rest herself.
Between night shifts, Merchan packs more donated supplies for shipment, including packets of electrolyte powder for first responders. She tucks in handwritten notes thanking the health workers, reminding them they’re not alone. “We’re watching and we’re with you,” she wants them to know, “from all over the world.”
