The Japan Times - 'Where is she?' The desperate search for Venezuela's missing

Other relatives scour hospitals and morgues after the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 left more than 1,700 dead and tens of thousands more still missing.

Soraida's 44-year-old sister, Rosanna Luna, says not knowing what happened her sister is excruciating.

"I feel like my hands are tied because I can't find her," she laments.

Like Luna, thousands of people are searching for one or more family members with growing desperation six days after the disaster.

Social media is flooded with photos of children, the elderly, and couples, along with their names and descriptions, as well as a contact number for their families.

The initiative "venezuelatebusca.com," a database launched to help find friends and relatives lost since the earthquakes, reports more than 46,000 missing. The name means "Venezuela is looking for you."

The United Nations estimates that the number could be as high as 50,000 but Venezuela's government has avoided putting a number on how many people are still unaccounted for.

On Sunday, Luna thought she recognized her sister among the photos of the dead at the main Caracas morgue.

One of the faces looked very similar, but when she looked more closely, the toenail polish didn't match.

The next day, she returned and found another face that resembled Soraida's in a new batch of photographs.

But the person's features were so swollen that she couldn't be sure it was her.

Other relatives have been searching for her among the ruins of the apartment where Soraida lived with her dog Princesa in La Guaira, on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, the region worst hit by the earthquakes.

But on Monday, as they were returning to the site, a strong aftershock forced them to abandon their search.

"It's harder not knowing, because you ask yourself, 'What do I do? Where do I look for her?" Luna cried.

"I look for her here and she's not there, I went to the hospital and she's not there. Where is she?'"

- "Very painful" -

Her anguish is shared outside morgues as well as in hospitals, where photos of missing persons are plastered on walls and utility poles, written on handwritten pieces of paper.

Robert Campos, who lost contact with several family members, says that information gathered from websites isn't always accurate.

His nephew was marked "deceased" on one site on Friday, but when he arrived at the hospital to which the page directed him, there was no record of his relative.

He continues to tour hospitals and morgues, following possible leads sent to him from other family members, who continue to dig through rubble.

Nearly a week after the earthquake, the 54-year-old just wants closure.

"If they are alive, all the better, but what I want is to find them," he said.

- 'Many bodies' -

The pungent smell of death emanates from the Caracas morgue, an odour that thousands of liters of donated chlorine cannot mask.

An employee who asked to remain anonymous said that the institution has received "a great many" bodies since the day of the two earthquakes, magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, and is overwhelmed.

Many have not been identified, partly due to the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies.

"Not knowing anything," says Campos, is the hard part.

"Being told that the person died gives you the peace of mind that you don't have to keep searching. You can help others, but you've already overcome that barrier that has been holding you back," he said.

Rosanna Luna, who is looking for her sister, is still hoping for a miracle.

"I've asked God that she turns up safe and sound," she said. "But if that's not the case, at least let us find her."

K.Yamaguchi--JT