‘Hopefully they are alive’: Many missing after building collapse are from Latin America

At least 36 people from Latin American nations — including Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Argentina — are among those reported missing by friends, officials and family following the partial collapse of a residential building in Surfside on early Thursday morning, highlighting the international reach of the tragedy in a region that serves as a link between the United States and Latin America.

Sophia López Moreira Bó, the sister of first lady of Paraguay Silvana López Moreira Bó, along with her husband Luis Pettengill and their three young children, were among those said to be missing. They were accompanied by Leidy Villalba, a domestic worker. The family owned units 703 and 1010 at the Champlain Towers, according to public records reviewed by the Miami Herald.

“You feel like you are nothing. You want to do so much but you can’t do it, you have no strength,” said Yuby Cartes, an aunt of Pettengill’s. “I’m staying here until I learn something.” Cartes said their relatives are coming in a private plane to Miami as they await news.

Paraguay’s foreign affairs minister, Euclides Acevedo, and Federico Campos López Moreira, a lawyer and relative of the first lady and her sister, both confirmed to Paraguayan media that López Moreira Bó and her family were unaccounted for. But the Paraguayan consulate in Miami said they are waiting for more details from the authorities, including a list of missing persons. They were still in the process of searching hospitals, added Emilio Mateu, a consular officer.

The family was in Miami to receive vaccinations against the coronavirus, according to Paraguayan radio station La Unión. That was also the case for the relatives of Doral resident Sergio Barth, who awaited news at the family reunification center.

Barth said his brother, Luis Fernando Barth, was visiting South Florida from Colombia with his wife and 14-year-old daughter. They had been staying in the Champlain Towers apartment of a close friend for about a month before the collapse.

“Early this morning I heard on Colombian radio that a building had collapsed in Surfside, and I knew the area,” said Barth. “And I started putting the dots together.”

He added the family had all received their two vaccine doses and were set to leave the Surfside apartment Thursday afternoon.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, no useful information right now,” said Barth.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio acknowledged that many of the missing came from outside the United States and said his office was available to assist the relatives of the missing.

“Our office is on site at the family reunification center to help provide assistance with obtaining humanitarian visas for their loved ones who need to travel to the U.S.,” he wrote on Twitter.

At least nine Argentinians were also missing following the building’s collapse, according to sources in Argentina’s foreign ministry.

Rodrigo Salem, a 50-year-old Dania Beach resident, had not heard from his friends and their young daughter, who were visiting from Argentina and stayed at his Champlain Towers condo. Salem identified them as 55-year-old Andrés Galfrascoli, 45-year-old Fabián Nuñez, and young daughter Sophia Nuñez.

Galfrascoli is identified as a plastic surgeon on his business website and his social media pages. The newspaper La Nación in Argentina quoted friend Flavia Martinez as saying the medical professional was relaxing in Miami because the pandemic had halted plastic surgery in Argentina. They had been there two months, getting vaccinated and waiting out the pandemic.

A friend called Salem early Thursday morning to alert him to the collapse, and he provided their names to police. So far, he has not heard any word about them.

“We will wait and pray that they come back,” he said, later adding: “Hopefully they are alive.”

Two well-known Argentinian nationals — actors Gimena Accardi and Nicolás Vázquez — were in the building when it fell down, but the couple survived.

“We are thanking the universe for this miracle,” Accardi posted on Instagram. “We are praying for the victims and their family members.”

Eduardo Bouzout, the Uruguayan consul in Miami, confirmed to the Miami Herald that 3 Uruguayans were missing after the collapse. Two are a couple that did not live in the city, but had a second home in the building and had been there for a month and a half.

The third national is an 82-year-old Uruguayan woman, Graciela Ponce de León, who resided there with her Argentinian husband, daughter, and grandchild. One daughter of Graciela’s was in town visiting.

Bouzout said they had searched local hospitals but had not found any of the missing Uruguayans, and that they were in constant contact with the Argentinian consulate because the countries share missing citizens. Still, he remains hopeful.

“Hope is the last thing you lose,” he said.

Puerto Rican family among the missing

In Puerto Rico and across the island’s diaspora, people held their breath as they waited to hear from loved ones.

Carlos Pou, a 54-year-old man from Puerto Rico who resides in Boca Ratón, said he knew of at least six Puerto Ricans who were living in or visiting the building at the time of the collapse.

He identified them as brothers Jay and Frankie Kleiman, their mother Nancy Kress Levin, Annie Ortiz and her son Luis Bermúdez, and Deborah Berezdivin.

Frankie Kleiman and his mother lived on the same floor, and his brother Jay had been visiting town this week for a funeral, said Pou. Jay had been staying with their mother, Nancy.

Pou hosted a Father’s Day get-together of about 30 people. Frankie Kleiman and his spouse, Annie, had been there, and they had been talking about a new business they had set up. They had gone with Luis, nicknamed by his loved ones as “Luiyo.”

“They were having a good time,” Pou said.

He said he had called the Kleimans several times on Thursday after finding out about the collapse, but that the calls led to voicemail.

“They are young people with kids. Frankie’s daughter is pregnant,” said the friend of the family.

‘She was my Oprah’

85-year-old Chilean national Claudio Bonnefoy, along with his wife, Maricoy Obias-Bonnefoy, were also among those who relatives said were missing.

Irene Obias-Sanchez got a call from her aunt, Maricoy Obias-Bonnefoy, on Wednesday evening. Something told her she needed to pick up the call, she said, even though she was swamped with work.

“I could have just texted her back like I often did, but last night it felt different. I knew she wanted to talk about a get-together we were planning on Sunday with my sisters. She was so excited to finally be able to socialize with family after everyone was vaccinated,” Obias-Sanchez said.

Just two weeks away from turning 70, Obias-Bonnefoy was making plans to keep traveling the world with her husband Claudio, 85. Known to her family as “Tita Coy,” Obias-Bonnefoy was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, according to her niece. She worked at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and moved to Surfside about 10 years ago after retiring.

During the pandemic, the Bonnefoys were strict about following lockdown restrictions and only left their oceanfront apartment for walks on the beach and to buy groceries. But Tita Coy was a very social person and maintained contact with her family members through daily video calls and phone chats, Obias-Sanchez said.

“She was such an amazing person, so wise and generous. She took care of me and my two sisters when we arrived in the U.S. as teenagers in 1986. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it hadn’t been for her, for everything she taught me. She was my Oprah, a real inspiration,” said Obias-Sanchez.

She added that members of the Obias family who live in D.C. were flying into Miami to follow the rescue operations.

“We are all praying for a miracle. We just can’t believe this is happening.”

Friends search for childhood friend and Cuba-born parents

Juan Mora, a Loyola University graduate who lives in Chicago, was visiting his parents, Juan Mora Sr. and Ana Mora, at their home in the Champlain Towers when the building came crashing down early Thursday morning.

All three Moras are still missing. The elder Moras were born in Cuba, while their son was born in the United States.

Oscar Cepero, 31, was fishing with the younger Mora last Saturday just blocks from the condominium. He said the news feels “surreal.” When he heard about the collapse he jumped in his car and headed to the scene.

“I was like, this looks like his parents’ place,” Cepero said. “I went to the reunification place and was looking around for them, but nobody was providing information.”

Mora, Cepero and another friend, Daniel Ugarte, grew up together near Coral Gables.

Ana Mora, a Delta employee who loved to travel with her family, cooked for the boys and was “super nice,” Ugarte remembers.

Cepero described Juan Sr. fondly “as a typical Cuban... headstrong.”

The three graduated from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in 2007, and went their separate ways. But Mora and Cepero reunited on a program in China, and they always made time for each other during the holidays in Miami. They liked to hang out, get drinks and play video games.

Cepero said the Belen community has been “hit hard” by the news. The whereabouts of another family affiliated with the school are still unknown.