Asger Risom
The death toll from Venezuela’s twin earthquakes has reached 1,450, with nearly 50,000 people still missing. While the critical 72-hour rescue window has closed, an international team of 32,000 rescuers has pulled over 30 survivors from the rubble over the weekend amid mounting public anger over the government’s response.
Hope is beginning to fade in Venezuela as emergency workers push past the critical survival window following two massive back-to-back earthquakes. The twin disasters—measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude—struck near the coastal region of La Guaira, leaving a trail of catastrophic destruction that has overwhelmed local emergency infrastructure.
According to the latest updates reported by Al Jazeera, the official death toll has risen to at least 1,450 people, with another 3,150 reported injured. The sheer scale of the disaster is staggering: more than 770 buildings have completely collapsed, displacing over 12,000 residents and leaving just under 50,000 people officially unaccounted for.
Miraculous saves past the 72-hour window
In any major earthquake, the first 72 hours are considered the critical window for saving lives, as the likelihood of trapped victims surviving without water or under heavy debris drops drastically after that point. That milestone passed late Saturday night, shifting the operation into a much more grim and desperate phase.
Despite the terrible odds, a massive force of 30,000 Venezuelan rescue workers and 2,700 international experts refuse to give up. Their perseverance paid off over the weekend with at least 33 miraculous rescues that have kept spirits alive.
In the coastal town of Carabayida, joint rescue teams from El Salvador and Peru worked through the night for 11 hours to successfully pull a 60-year-old woman alive from the rubble of a collapsed building. She is currently in delicate condition at a hospital in Caracas.
A specialized search and rescue team from Virginia pulled a father and his son from a ruined structure on Sunday morning, while U.S. officials separately confirmed the rescue of an infant.
Personnel from Mexico and Colombia successfully located and extracted two separate 11-year-old boys from flattened buildings.
Growing anger over the government’s response
While international teams and local volunteers log exhausting hours on the pile, public anger is boiling over regarding how the Venezuelan government is handling the crisis.
In the hard-hit areas of La Guaira, survivors note that critical aid like food and clean water has only just begun to trickle in, forcing many families to camp out on the streets next to marked ruins where their loved ones remain buried.
Friction between citizens and state officials has already turned physical. In one instance, furious residents blocked a government excavator from leaving a collapse site, actively pulling the operator out of the cabin after state workers reportedly took selfies in front of the destroyed buildings and attempted to drive away without helping.
In response to the chaos, Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has deployed over 14,000 military and police officers to patrol La Guaira state, heavily restricting access to the disaster zone by requiring special entry permits.
School operations have been suspended for another week while engineers form a presidential commission to inspect which standing buildings are actually safe to re-enter.
A massive test for a new administration
This disaster represents an immense political and humanitarian hurdle for President Rodriguez, who took office in January following the U.S. military’s abduction of former President Nicolas Maduro.
Rodriguez has positioned herself as a leader capable of pulling Venezuela out of its long-running economic isolation, relying heavily on a close relationship with Washington to navigate this national tragedy.
The international community has responded rapidly to the crisis. The United States has pledged $150 million toward the United Nations and various humanitarian groups on the ground, while the European Union has mobilized 5 million euros in emergency financial assistance.
Additionally, the EU’s Copernicus satellite system is actively being used to map the structural damage from orbit, helping coordinators direct international rescue teams to the neighborhoods that need them most.
