Anguished families left to identify Venezuela quake victims at makeshift morgue

Images of more than 1,000 corpses flash across the screens in a seemingly endless sequence. Many of them are swollen, have dark skin, or have signs of injury, making identification difficult.

Families are looking for any traces (a tattoo, a bracelet, clothing or an item from their home) that might help identify their loved ones.

Sometimes there is a pause, a moment of hope. Two workers scrolling through photos on their iPads zoom in on teeth, tattoos or scars.

In front of one of the screens, a woman burst into tears as she recognized her son from the dusty blanket. Another foreign woman hugs her.

A phone rings and breaks the silence.

A young man whispers into the phone that he is trying to identify his mother. But he says the condition of the bodies makes things difficult.

“It’s like a horror movie,” Catia La Mar resident Liliana González, 60, says as she leaves.

He had come looking for his aunt, but eventually identified his 37-year-old nephew by his tattoo.

“It wasn’t on the list,” he says. “I had to look at the pictures.”

“I saw my mother when she died, but this… this isn’t the same.”