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Venezuelan authorities on Friday raised the death toll from twin earthquakes that struck the country on Wednesday to 920 with 3360 injured as international rescue teams arrived to bolster search efforts in devastated northern areas. The quakes measuring up to magnitude 7.5 flattened buildings in La Guaira state north of Caracas and parts of the capital itself according to government statements relayed by Reuters and the BBC while aftershocks continued to complicate operations. Jorge Rodríguez president of the National Assembly announced the updated figures on state television noting that 172 people remained trapped and at least 243 had been rescued in La Guaira alone.
Government figures show the second quake registered as one of the strongest to hit Venezuela in a century with the United States Geological Survey confirming a mainshock of 7.5 following an initial 7.2 tremor just seconds apart. The events devastated infrastructure in La Guaira which hosts the country’s main airport and a key port as well as neighbourhoods in Caracas such as Los Palos Grandes and Altamira according to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. An independent database cited in Wikipedia assessments placed the number of missing persons above 50000 in hard-hit zones alone though official tallies focused on confirmed casualties and those still trapped under rubble.
Hundreds of international rescue workers had reached Venezuela by Friday with more en route as the United Nations coordinated a global response according to humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher who stated the disaster needs an international global response and we’ll coordinate that and we will deliver. The United States dispatched warships transport planes and $150 million in aid while pledging sanction relief the New York Times reported alongside teams from the United Kingdom Netherlands Mexico and Switzerland. A UK military flight carrying search specialists dogs and drones from 14 fire services departed RAF Brize Norton on Friday to join operations that had initially relied on rescuers pulling survivors from collapsed structures with their bare hands.
The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland told the BBC that Venezuela was ill-prepared because of its already crumbling infrastructure following decades of underinvestment a vulnerability compounded by more than a decade of economic crisis in the oil-rich nation. Surviving hospitals lacked supplies and medicines even on normal days making the emergency far more difficult doctor Pedro Javier Fernandez told BBC reporters on the ground. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez noted in a televised briefing that dozens rescued alive brought joy that they can embrace their families and loved ones while adding that 214 aftershocks had been recorded since the initial pair of quakes.
Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez speaking to the BBC from exile in Spain described the devastation as huge with people in shock and pointed to a parallel collapse of infrastructure alongside the state’s incapacity to provide timely rescue support though he highlighted tremendous support by civil society in Venezuela. The disaster struck amid political uncertainty less than six months after Nicolás Maduro was seized by US forces in Caracas to face drug-trafficking charges in New York with his ally Delcy Rodríguez assuming interim leadership. A PwC review of regional trends had previously flagged risks in infrastructure resilience across similar economies though specific Venezuelan data underscored long-term underfunding in seismic preparedness.
In one morale-boosting rescue broadcast on state television three young siblings emerged from rubble in La Guaira covered in dust with rescuers heard urging them to safety one girl confirming they were siblings as the third sobbed while being pulled free. Among the dead were the wife of Venezuelan footballer Héctor Bello who saved their toddler daughter according to his social media posts as well as one Portuguese national two Brazilians and four Spanish citizens with 106 Spaniards still unaccounted for per their foreign ministry. Reuters data placed total infrastructure damage at hundreds of buildings and more than 1000 sites including hospitals and shopping centres with the USGS PAGER system warning the toll could rise significantly beyond current confirmed figures.
