Argentine soccer player Lucas Trejo loses wife, 2 children in Venezuela earthquakes

An Argentine soccer player for a Venezuelan second division team has lost his wife and two children after last week's earthquakes, the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

Lucas Trejo, who plays for Club Sport Marítimo La Guaira, had spent much of the last three days combing through rubble and looking for signs of his wife Yanina and their children Aarón and Ainhoa.

Trejo's brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles told CNN Español Friday the soccer player was "emotionally overwhelmed" and that "absolutely nothing" was left of the family's beachfront home in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit areas.

More than 1,400 people died and thousands more are missing in Venezuela, authorities said Sunday.

Trejo, 38, was at a team training camp in Caracas when the two earthquakes struck, CNN Español reported. He immediately rushed to his home in La Guaira, 18 miles north of the capital.

"What he found was a horrific scene, Ardiles said. "He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been. Our hope is that they weren't in there."

Trejo sifted through debris and looked for clues in the area, appealing for help that required heavy machinery, according to CNN Español.

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Friends and teammates had also made a video pleading for more machinery.

"Right now we only have one machine, but it's not enough," said Robert Garcés, who plays for Venezuela's Metropolitanos F.C.

The search, however, came to a heartbreaking end.

On Sunday, Club Sport Marítimo La Guaira said it "deeply mourns the irreparable loss" of Trejo's family in a social media post, sharing a photo of the four together -- Trejo with one hand resting 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," it said.

The disaster last week, which the US Geological Survey said was a rare "doublet," with two major earthquakes striking just 39 seconds apart, has also killed and impacted several soccer players in the country.

Yimvert Berroteran, a promising young talent, was among the hundreds of people who died, the Venezuelan national team and the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) said Friday.

The 18-year-old played at the U-17 World Cup in Doha a few months ago and recently for the U-20 national team.

The quake also claimed the lives of young players Víctor Palacios and Razan Sijaa, according to FVF and their respective clubs.

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.

Spain's foreign ministry said at least nine Spanish nationals have died and over 100 are missing.

The search has now surpassed the first 72 hours -- the most critical window for finding survivors.

Historically, after that period, the chances of survival without a water source diminish rapidly. Some studies say the majority of live rescues happen within the first five or six days.

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