The wife and two children of Argentine soccer player Lucas Trejo died after two earthquakes that shook northern Venezuela late last week.
Trejo has played for several first and second division football clubs in the South American country since 2023 and signed with Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira, based in northern Venezuela, earlier this year.
On Sunday, Trejo's club announced the death of his family in an Instagram post.
“The Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira deeply regrets the irreparable loss of the wife and children of our player Lucas Trejo,” the team wrote. “[The deaths] “It happened on June 24 during the earthquake that shook the entire country.”
According to Venezuelan government officials, more than 1,700 people have died as a result of the earthquakes.
When the earthquakes struck, Trejo was at a training session in the capital city of Caracas, while his wife Yanina and children, Aarón and Ainhoa, were at the family home in the severely affected coastal city of La Guaira.
Trejo's brother-in-law, Ricardo Ardiles, told CNN Español that the Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira defender rushed home after the tremors and was “emotionally overwhelmed” as he dug through the rubble for days looking for his family.
“What he found was a horrible scene,” Ardiles said last week. “He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been.”
Trejo was far from the only athlete seriously affected by seismic activity in Venezuela.
The former player of the Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira, Héctor Bello, also lost his wife Andrea during the earthquakes. She died while protecting her young daughter, who was later found alive by rescuers.
“I will make sure our baby remembers how wonderful you were, how much you loved her,” Bello wrote in an Instagram post honoring his wife. “I will tell her the story of how you saved her, how you gave your life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who, not even with your last breath, never abandoned her.”
On Friday, the Venezuelan Football Federation announced the death of 18-year-old rising star Yimvert Berroterán, who played with the youth teams from 2024 to 2026.
“Venezuelan football offers a heartbreaking farewell to a young man who represented the colors of our country with pride, commitment and love,” reads a statement from the federation on social networks. “His death has left the entire Vinotinto family in mourning and leaves an indelible mark on all those who shared moments with him both on and off the court.”
Razan Sijaa, 18, a player from the Caracas Fútbol Club, Víctor Palacios, 14, from the Club Sport San Agustín academy, and prospect Ricardo Veloz, 17, also died as a result of the earthquakes.
Locally, the family of Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas narrowly escaped tragedy and was doing well after the earthquakes.
“Literally two blocks from where my family was, two buildings collapsed, the entire building,” Rojas told reporters last week. “I'm lucky, to be honest with you. I'm very lucky to have my family still alive and with me. I don't take this for granted.”
According to Rojas, his wife and children were in Caracas, approximately six miles south of where the earthquakes occurred. His wife was there to renew her passport and the children were going to try to obtain Venezuelan citizenship. He added that his sister was in Los Teques, Rojas' hometown, about 17 miles south of the coastal destruction.
“It's really hard to see teammates of mine and players I played with at some point in my career lose family members, lose children,” said Rojas, who spent years playing baseball in La Guaira. “It's really devastating. It's been very difficult for me to fall asleep at night.”
