New Delhi, July 13 -- LA GUAIRA, Venezuela - Javier Villegas has spent nineteen days searching the same unstable building in La Guaira, convinced his aunt is among the roughly 38 bodies he believes remain trapped inside. The thirty-year-old pulls away debris by hand, without government crews, without heavy equipment, without certainty about what he will find. "All we see is decay," he said, "but we're still fighting to get our loved ones out."

Three weeks after the June 24 earthquake struck Venezuela's northern coast, the official death toll has climbed to over 4,300 - nearly double the 2,295 confirmed when search operations entered their second week. The United Nations estimates approximately 50,000 people remain unaccounted for. The di...