Three weeks after Venezuela’s earthquake, Carolina Munoz was still combing the rubble of the collapsed OPPPE 27 tower in Caraballeda for her son Carlos’ body.
The search centered on 12 crushed floors of the apartment building, where families were carrying out their own recovery efforts for relatives still trapped in the debris.
AP photographer Ariana Cubillos captured Munoz praying atop the wreckage with a 70-200mm lens, saying the image distilled the helplessness and grief shared by many families at the site.
After taking the photo, Cubillos learned Munoz said she would not leave until she found her son, underscoring the human toll of the quake beyond the death count.
How did one photo of a mother praying in Venezuela’s rubble become the symbol of a wider earthquake tragedy and search for the missing?
Why were families still digging through a collapsed 12-floor tower by hand weeks after Venezuela’s earthquake, and what does that reveal about the response?