Venezuela earthquakes: frantic search for survivors conti...
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/taz-ali,https://www.theguard·2026-06-26·via The Guardian
Opening summary
Rescue workers and residents in cities across northern Venezuela continue to dig through rubble in a frantic search for survivors, more than a day after the country was hit with the most powerful earthquake in over a century.
At least 235 people have been killed, but authorities fear the death toll could rise significantly, with thousands reported missing. More than 4,000 people were injured in the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck less than 40 seconds apart on Wednesday evening in the northern states near the capital, Caracas.
The coastal region of La Guaira, where the country’s main airport is located, suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties, as rows of towering apartment blocks were reduced to rubble while people desperately searched for missing loved ones.
People walk amid rubble after a twin earthquake in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezeula. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
The UN’s humanitarian agency, Ocha, reported more than 100 buildings had collapsed in the La Guaira region alone, including a large block of flats called the Ritasol Palace and the seafront Eduard’s Hotel.
The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation. She said the government was creating a $200m reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes.
She appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations.
“We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” she said.
A man looks at a damaged building in the aftermath of earthquakes in La Guaira. Photograph: Maxwell Briceno/Reuters
Dramatic scenes unfolded on Thursday of people being pulled out of rubble covered in dust and blood, but few government rescue teams were initially seen outside Caracas, according to reports.
Yamileth Jimenez, from La Guaira city, said her 19-year-old son was still trapped in the debris of their seven-story apartment building.
“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” Jimenez told Reuters.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the defence department would help search and rescue teams deploy to the affected region after the Simón Bolívar international airport was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.
He said the immediate priority was search and rescue. “They have [lots of] collapsed buildings and so they will need a lot of help in terms of digging through that,” Rubio told reporters, adding that the next 72 “golden” hours were critical.
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck a rural part of northern California on Wednesday. Hours later, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the northern coast of Japan and two powerful earthquakes rocked Venezuela in a devastating mass casualty event.
The tremors happened in the span of eight hours, prompting online speculation over whether they were related.
Experts say they were not.
The episodes do share a similarity in that they all occurred along well-known plate boundaries with high seismic hazard, according to William Barnhart, assistant coordinator for the US Geological Survey’s earthquake hazards program. But their timing on Wednesday was simply a coincidence.
“Earthquakes happen every day all over the world. Most of them happen far from people,” Barnhart said. “Yesterday was just a very peculiar day where you had a couple of fairly significant earthquakes happen in areas where people felt them.”
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Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez visited Macuto, La Guaira state, yesterday to assess the level of damage and observe search and rescue efforts, according to local media.
She announced the imminent arrival of international aid, with the aim of bolstering the efforts of the country’s emergency services.
“We have requested international aid, and support from our sister nations will begin to arrive in the coming hours. Our best wishes, all our hopes and prayers are focused on the lives of Venezuelans,” she said.
Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez and her brother, the head of the Venezuelan national assembly Jorge Rodriguez, visiting an area strongly affected by the earthquake in La Guaira. Photograph: Venezuelan Presidency/AFP/Getty Images
A senior American military official has arrived in Venezuela’s capital Caracas to oversee US relief efforts, the US Southern Command (Southcom), whose area of responsibility covers Latin America and the Caribbean, said.
US Marine Corps Maj Gen Kevin Jarrard is serving as the senior Southcom official on the ground to coordinate relief operations with local teams, Southcom said in a post on X.
Opening summary
Rescue workers and residents in cities across northern Venezuela continue to dig through rubble in a frantic search for survivors, more than a day after the country was hit with the most powerful earthquake in over a century.
At least 235 people have been killed, but authorities fear the death toll could rise significantly, with thousands reported missing. More than 4,000 people were injured in the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck less than 40 seconds apart on Wednesday evening in the northern states near the capital, Caracas.
The coastal region of La Guaira, where the country’s main airport is located, suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties, as rows of towering apartment blocks were reduced to rubble while people desperately searched for missing loved ones.
People walk amid rubble after a twin earthquake in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezeula. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
The UN’s humanitarian agency, Ocha, reported more than 100 buildings had collapsed in the La Guaira region alone, including a large block of flats called the Ritasol Palace and the seafront Eduard’s Hotel.
The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation. She said the government was creating a $200m reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes.
She appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations.
“We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” she said.
A man looks at a damaged building in the aftermath of earthquakes in La Guaira. Photograph: Maxwell Briceno/Reuters
Dramatic scenes unfolded on Thursday of people being pulled out of rubble covered in dust and blood, but few government rescue teams were initially seen outside Caracas, according to reports.
Yamileth Jimenez, from La Guaira city, said her 19-year-old son was still trapped in the debris of their seven-story apartment building.
“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” Jimenez told Reuters.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the defence department would help search and rescue teams deploy to the affected region after the Simón Bolívar international airport was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.
He said the immediate priority was search and rescue. “They have [lots of] collapsed buildings and so they will need a lot of help in terms of digging through that,” Rubio told reporters, adding that the next 72 “golden” hours were critical.
