Brasilia (DF) – January 12, 2010. An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale hits the south of the island of Hispaniola, near Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Within moments, entire buildings collapse, thousands of people are crushed by rubble and many more are buried. In the midst of this scenario are the Brazilian soldiers taking part in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) – and among them, then Lieutenant Colonel Adriano de Souza Azevedo, of the Brazilian Army. In the first twelve hours after the catastrophe, the officer would experience a story of suffering and bravery that would mark him for the rest of his life.
At the time of the earthquake, Lieutenant-Colonel Azevedo and Lieutenant-Colonel Alexandre Santos were attending a meeting at the Christopher Hotel, used as MINUSTAH’s headquarters in Haiti. “It was my first day on the job. I went with several other soldiers to the mission’s headquarters to receive the assignment. I was looking around the conference room, a beautiful room full of flags, when suddenly, at around 4.50pm, there was a small tremor and a loud explosion that threw me to the ground,” said the soldier, now a reserve colonel.
When the hotel collapsed, despair gripped everyone. “My natural inclination was to run out of the building. But when I did, when I got up, I saw my deputy. Major Guimarães was going down the stairs when the building fell forward and killed him. The structure collapsed and everything went dark. I remember two sounds: people dying, taking their last breath, already crushed, and the sound of computer stabilizers.”
After a long time of distress, Lieutenant Colonel Azevedo managed to find a solution to the situation.
“I saw a small crack in a wall, a small ray of light that came in. I tried to reach that place and, with the strength you gain on the spot, I pulled out three bricks and broke through the wall.” The Brazilian soldier was one of five people who survived the collapse of the hotel, where 130 people were buried. Wounded in the leg, the lieutenant colonel could have taken shelter somewhere safe, but decided to remain at the scene and help with the rescue. His partner, Lieutenant Colonel Alexandre Santos, was still buried and many other people still needed help.
Rescuing survivors was not easy. After the earthquake, smaller tremors continued to shake the region, and there was no stability on the rubble. With the help of Lieutenant Colonel Celso Kersul, Azevedo climbed the rubble and used an improvised abseil to reach the victims. Five hours later, Alexandre Santos was rescued. Several hours later, Jude Brice, a civilian employee of MINUSTAH, was also rescued by the Brazilian. Following Lieutenant-Colonel Azevedo’s example, more military and civilian personnel became involved in the search for survivors. “There were pyramids of dead in the streets. We moved bodies aside so that the vehicles could pass and we helped those who were alive. We immediately decided that we needed to support the population.”
The bravery of then Lieutenant-Colonel Azevedo earned him the Peacemaker’s Medal with Palm from the Brazilian Army, a decoration awarded to Brazilian military personnel and civilians who, in peacetime, in the exercise of their duties or in the fulfillment of military missions, have distinguished themselves by personal acts of self-sacrifice, courage and bravery, at the risk of their lives. Looking back on the experience, the reserve soldier highlights what has stuck in his memory. “What struck me most there was the sense of teamwork that we Brazilians have. The feeling of a people who know how to do things well.”
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***