Venezuela Earthquakes Kill Nearly 1,500 People

Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, killing at least 1,430 people and injuring more than 3,200 others. The quakes hit the northern coast near the city of La Guaira, not far from the capital, Caracas. Rescue workers and local residents raced to find survivors buried under collapsed buildings. The disaster came at a hard time for Venezuela, a country already struggling with years of economic problems and political turmoil.

The two earthquakes measured magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, making them the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. Scientists say the first 72 hours after a disaster are the most important window for finding people alive. Rescue teams from at least 17 countries were sent to help dig through the rubble. Despite these efforts, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher warned that more than 50,000 people were still missing and the death toll could rise further.

The United Nations estimated that up to 6.76 million people could be affected by the disaster. Many of those people needed emergency shelter, clean water, sanitation, and medical care. The UN also estimated that physical damage from the quakes reached about $6.7 billion — roughly 6 percent of Venezuela's entire economy. Aid agencies said that even before the earthquakes, millions of Venezuelans were already facing hunger and collapsing health services.

There were moments of hope during the rescue effort. On June 26, local residents pulled a baby out of the wreckage alive, about 32 hours after the quakes struck. A video shared on social media showed a man in tears as he held the infant in his arms. Stories like this one gave rescue workers and families a reason to keep searching.

However, many Venezuelans were angry at the government's slow response. Some residents in Caracas jeered at government leader Delcy Rodriguez when she visited a destroyed neighborhood on June 26. Yessica Mendoza, a 43-year-old mother, said she had to carry her own daughter's body to a morgue herself after her daughter and son-in-law were killed when their home collapsed. "We were the ones who pulled them out ourselves. No help ever came," she said.

Help from other countries began to arrive. The United States said it was sending more than 250 disaster response workers, including three special search-and-rescue teams with trained dogs. US military cargo planes landed at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas, and a naval ship arrived off the coast. Delcy Rodriguez said she had spoken with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promised to support the relief effort.

Venezuela's northern coast sits on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, which are large sections of Earth's crust that can shift and cause earthquakes. The country had not experienced a major quake since 1997. Earthquakes of similar strength have caused massive destruction in other parts of the world — more than 200,000 people died in Haiti in 2010, and 73,000 died in Kashmir in 2005. Venezuelans are now hoping that international aid arrives quickly enough to prevent the suffering from getting even worse.