The soccer player, a defender for Venezuela's professional team Marítimo de La Guaira, announced that his wife Andrea Bello died while protecting their 20-month-old daughter Alana.
"You'll always be our favorite hero, Mommy," Héctor wrote in a June 26 Instagram tribute, translated from Spanish. "I'm going to make sure our baby remembers how wonderful you were, how much you loved her."
"I'll tell her the story of how you saved her," he continued, "how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who, even with your last breaths, never abandoned her, Mommy."
On June 25, Venezuela was hit by powerful 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude twin earthquakes, killing—per the Associated Press—over 900 people.
According to the organization Cumaná de Campeones, Andrea, "the partner of Cumanes footballer Héctor Bello 'Kike' was found dead in the rubble after the earthquake that shook the country yesterday afternoon/evening. His daughter survived the collapse of the building where the entire family lived."
Following Andrea's death, Héctor also shared a message to Alana, who was born in October 2024.
"I need you to be strong," he wrote. "Just wait a little longer. I need you to be the one to heal my heart, which is in pieces."
"You won't see your daddy strong or smiling like always, but I promise to heal and make you the happiest girl in the world," the 28-year-old added. "Now it's just you and me and your mommy watching over us from heaven. I know Andrea will give me strength."
Héctor concluded with a message on Andrea's behalf. "I know that if she had a minute to say something to me," he wrote, "she would tell me to protect you with my life like she did, and not to forget to always buy you the bananas you love so much."