Megan Janetsky, Andry Rincón and Juan Pablo Arraez
Updated ,first published
Guaira: In towns in northern Venezuela, neighbors helped each other dig through rubble to find loved ones after a series of earthquakes that officials say killed more than 900 people and left thousands injured.
The official death toll rose on Friday to at least 920 dead and 3,360 injured, officials said. The number of casualties was expected to rise, with thousands reported missing and rescue efforts ongoing.
“We will rescue the trapped people,” Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Friday. “We are working tirelessly on this task.”
The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck Wednesday evening are among the largest in Venezuela in more than a century and were felt across the region.
The wounded were taken out from under the dusty and bloody dirt. Venezuelan national television showed dramatic images of rescuers, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab with her bare feet showing off before rescuers pulled her out alive. But few government search teams were initially seen outside Caracas.
The coastal area of La Guaira, north of the capital Caracas, suffered extensive damage and casualties. The country’s main airport was closed due to damage, hampering relief efforts.
Many were stunned Thursday morning when they saw buildings left with skeletons, furniture hanging from windows and helicopters circling overhead. Buildings were improved and streets were torn up.
Families posted missing person flyers with photos of their loved ones while others shared handwritten lists as they searched. Venezuelan citizens abroad had difficulty communicating with their relatives due to the interruption of telephone service in the country.
In the city of Caracas, hundreds of people spent the night gathered in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.
Dayana Delgado, a mother of three, asked where the heavy machinery that government officials promised and said residents are the ones digging up the collapsed buildings.
“I want to know where my son is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said of her missing eight-year-old son.
A mother cried and fainted in grief while the bodies of her three and 10-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away. Others shouted the names of the lost. Others stood in silent shock.
Venezuelan authorities said they were directing rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which is no stranger to natural disasters: a 1999 mudslide killed thousands of people and is considered one of the country’s worst natural disasters.
In La Guaira, Cristian Carreño stared at his charred apartment building leaning precariously to one side.
“I lost everything,” he said. “There are people still inside, I think, they couldn’t get out. It’s very sad.”
Retired teacher Juan Alberto Mendaño climbed the remains in La Guaira and passed the dead body when he saw a woman who was trapped and motioned with her hand for help.
“May God save him as soon as possible,” Mendaño said. “When we heard the screams, there was nothing we could do.”
The natural disaster is the latest challenge for Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the arrest and ouster of then-president Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been facing an economic crisis for more than a decade and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement that Rodríguez represents.
Rodríguez declared the state of emergency in a speech to the nation late Wednesday. He said the government is creating a reconstruction fund of US$200 million ($290 million) for hospitals and damaged houses.
He called on businessmen on Thursday to donate heavy construction equipment for rescue operations.
“We hope to save as many lives as possible,” Rodríguez said.
While Venezuela sits near many fault lines, its location in parts of South America and the Caribbean makes large earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
The US Geological Survey said both earthquakes were centered near Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers west of Caracas.
The aftershocks, along with smaller tremors, added to the damage, said Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil.
“It’s like I’m yelling and then someone starts screaming, too. That amplifies the vibration and increases the potential danger,” Ferreira said.
Shortly after United Nations officials in Venezuela called on the government to remove restrictions on social media so that people could access life-saving information, Venezuelans in the country were able to access X. The website had been blocked by Maduro since August 2024 in an attempt to suppress the exchange of information between those who rejected his claims of victory in the July presidential election.
Leaders from Mexico, Qatar, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Canada vowed to send aid. Several shipments were already on their way Thursday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke to Rodríguez following the quake, said the US was sending aid immediately, although he acknowledged the closure of Venezuela’s main airport had created logistical challenges.
“We have a government-wide response. It’s going to be big; it’s going to be fast; and it’s going to be effective,” Rubio said.
Rescue teams from Mexico, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic arrived in Venezuela on Thursday, along with an aid plane from Mexico.
“No country is ready to give the required response. That’s what the neighboring countries are there for,” Dominican Air Force Major Carlos Olivares said.
The Venezuelan diaspora was also helping. In Ecuador, Félix Rodríguez said his store was receiving donations from fellow Venezuelans as well as Ecuadorians.
“My business is always ready for whatever Venezuela needs,” he said.
Gabby Graham said she regularly sent money from Spokane, Washington, to Venezuela using peer-to-peer payments to a local business that provided cash to her family. But since the earthquakes, they could not find a business owner, and could not share money for food, water, medicine and toilets.
“I think it hasn’t been easy for them over the years. Right now it’s worse because it’s about getting these things,” Graham said.
