After a whisper saved baby and father from rubble, the search is on for mother in collapsed building in Colombia

Search Intensifies for Mother Trapped in Colombian Building After Earthquake Rescue Captivates Nation

Activelifezero.com – Colombian rescue teams are conducting an urgent search for a young architect who remains buried beneath the collapsed Torres del Limonar residential complex in Cali. Valentina Vanegas Galiano, 29, was last seen inside the five-story building when a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday morning at 7:34 a.m. Her survival remains uncertain as the critical 72-hour window for locating trapped survivors begins to close.

The desperate search has drawn hundreds of volunteers, emergency workers, and specialists to the site. Among those helping are Valentina’s colleagues—architects, engineers, and construction professionals who know the building’s structure intimately. Her friend Alejandra Montoya explained that while rescuers have a general idea of where Valentina might be trapped, they lack precise confirmation of her location or whether she is still alive.

A Father’s Whisper Saves His Infant Son

Valentina’s search is unfolding alongside a remarkable rescue story that has captured hearts across the nation. Three-month-old Salomón was pulled alive from the rubble after a bystander heard his father’s faint voice calling out from beneath the concrete debris. “I’m here. I’m with a baby,” Juan David Gómez whispered through the dust and darkness.

Brian Osorio Zuluaga, an office worker in the building complex, had rushed home on his motorbike when the earthquake hit. The sight of the collapsed structure forced him to stop and begin shouting into the wreckage for survivors, despite warnings about potential gas leaks. When he heard Gómez’s barely audible call, he asked everyone around him to be quiet.

Video footage of the rescue shows the infant, covered in dust and wearing a bodysuit, being carefully lifted from the debris. His father, Juan David, can be seen lying awkwardly on his side with a bloodied arm, still partially trapped beneath a heavy concrete plank. Osorio described how he and several volunteers moved debris by hand, carefully holding a large concrete slab aloft while others cleared a path to the baby.

“You can see the baby’s little head there — which, at the time, looked sort of purplish because he couldn’t breathe,” Osorio recalled. “Once we started removing the rubble, the baby began to… breathe, and his color started to come back.”

Political Controversy Over Aid Response

While families wait for news of their loved ones, Colombia’s new government faces its first major test. President Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative who took office only last Friday, has drawn criticism for initially refusing some international aid offers in the crucial hours following the disaster. The country has now begun receiving international rescuers, including the Topos Tlatelolco Rescue Brigade from Mexico—a team with extensive experience responding to natural disasters worldwide.

The earthquake, the strongest to hit Colombia in more than a decade, has killed at least 265 people and destroyed thousands of homes. President de la Espriella reported that almost 500 people remain missing as rescue operations continue across multiple affected areas.

Medical Updates and Ongoing Rescue Efforts

Salomón and his father are now stable and under medical observation at a local hospital. The baby suffered only a few scrapes and a minor blow to the head, while his father is recovering after undergoing surgery. According to Montoya, Juan David was able to provide rescuers with a reference point for where he believes Valentina became trapped—approximately three to four meters ahead of him, closer to the building’s entrance.

Rescue teams are working with this information alongside technical analysis of the building’s structure, prioritizing areas where other signs of life have been detected. More than 20 people were rescued alive from the complex during the first 12 hours after the earthquake, and three additional people and a dog have been found alive since then.

Montoya has barely left the site since Monday, watching as dozens of volunteers and rescuers work through the rubble. The community’s hope remains strong, even as the hours grow shorter for those still trapped beneath the concrete and steel of what was once a thriving residential complex.