“Bart did not hesitate,” wrote UPSOCL.com. “The Belgian Malinois from the Argentine Armed Forces received the order, went into a tunnel opened through the rubble, and signaled a positive presence. On the other side, two children were still alive.”

The operation took place on a Sunday afternoon in an area hit by two devastating earthquakes in Venezuela.

The team was already moving toward another point when the urgent call came in: people trapped alive in a collapsed structure.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Bart entered through a tunnel opened among the remains of the collapsed structure, where he detected signs of life and marked the exact location where the minors were trapped, reported La Derecha Diario.

The signals detected by the dog made it possible to redirect the entire excavation toward the exact sector where the children were located.

Marines worked alongside him until the rescue was completed. At the end, the Venezuelan authorities present publicly recognized his performance.

The Argentine Ministry of Defense confirmed it officially: without Bart, the search would have been aimed at the wrong place.

Once the operation was completed, Bart received recognition from the Venezuelan authorities involved in the emergency tasks, as a token of appreciation for his performance during one of the most complex searches conducted since the earthquake.