Venezuela was exhibiting another lacerating scar at this time. This time the earth had screamed after the clock struck 18:04. Nothing was ever the same in a country that carried other destructions on its back. Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, separated by just 39 seconds, shook several regions. The interim government has counted at least 188 deaths1,520 injured and a huge number of collapsed buildings. The figure is provisional and part of the black hole that has opened since Wednesday afternoon. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has estimated that there is a 42% chance that fatalities will range between 10,000 and 100,000. The numbers are scary and no authority dared to consider them crazy. A neighborhood initiative, ““Venezuela is looking for you”had registered more than 10,600 missing persons reports before the sun rose. The “Disappeared” page had about 25,000 reports when it was past noon on Thursday.
The epicenters of the double earthquake were located in the states of Carabobo and Yaracuy. The shock wave had a strong impact on Cojedes, Miranda, Aragua and the Capital District. The destruction was of different scope in those urban spaces. 30 kilometers from Caracas, in La Guaira, the city on the edge of the southern Caribbean, Numerous buildings collapsed like sand castles. The “president in charge”, Delcy Rodriguezdeclared it a disaster area. “The buildings that were there are no longer there, it is as if there had been an explosion or controlled demolition: there is not a single one standing,” said one survivor, while looking at the remains of his property. The impact was also felt at the Maiquetía international airport, which was immediately closed. International flights have been suspended.
What happened after 6:04 p.m. found Venezuelans preparing for a festive night of San Juan that ended in the worst misfortune. The national holiday became open-air mourning. After the earth shook, the scourge of the sea was feared. The United States Tsunami Warning System ruled out whether, however, the threat. The provisional Government formed a Contingency General Staff aimed at regaining control of the main affected cities. A National Emergency System was dedicated to immediately enabling shelters for affected families. Civil organizations, unions and churches also set up collection centers for the most impacted communities. Rodríguez announced the allocation of a fund of 200 million dollars for the reconstruction of vital infrastructure and housing throughout the country. He had temporarily assumed power to manage the new moment of relations with the United States, of a tutelary nature, and, eventually, the institutional transition. He has to manage a different drama.
More than 100 replicas
The aftershocks after the double earthquake were more than 100. The fear of new movements has been tattooed on the skin of Venezuelans. Telephone operators, private clinics, transport platforms and remittance services activated free support measures for those affected by the earthquakes. Requests for help and information from users abounded on social networks. The interim government lifted the digital blockade of X that had been established during the last year of Nicolás Maduro so that messages could flow. “We are looking for them!”, “We don’t know anything about him”, “I need information about them” and “Help us find her”, They were common texts that, accompanied by photographs of people of different ages, circulated on telephones that could be active. Only one answer was admissible: “We are alive.”
In the Plaza de la Candelaria in downtown Caracas, hundreds of citizens spent the night on mattresses and makeshift tents. They didn’t know if they were going to return home. In the Caracas municipality of Chacao, more than 150 officials from the Humanitarian Task Force worked amid the desperation of those who had been able to leave the buildings. Heavy machinery was removing the rubble of a 14-story apartment that collapsed completely onto the sidewalk. The noise of the engines was confused with the cries of despair. There 11 of its inhabitants died and 22 survivors were rescued. Nothing was known about the other neighbors.
Disaster history
Venezuela is a territory of intense seismic activity due to its location between the tectonic plates of the Caribbean and South America. Geologists maintain that the interaction between both structures usually causes frequent movements. The founding of the country came hand in hand with a telluric disaster. In the middle of Spain’s independence process, an earthquake caused at least 15,000 deaths, according to different historians. The last earthquake took place in the state of Sucre, in 2018, and was felt in Brazil, Guyana and several Caribbean islands. In 1997, 73 people died after earthquakes in Cariaco, in northeastern Venezuela.
Ehe worst record in recent decades forces us to go back to 1967, when 236 people lost their lives in Caracas. Since that tragedy, anti-seismic homes began to be built, but in the capital as in other cities, the architectural park is mixed. There are structures with protection technology that coexist in the urban space with old and vulnerable buildings built before a stricter construction protocol was required. And buildings have also fallen that, apparently, did not fully meet all the requirements and showed their fragility in the face of the telluric movement.
Messages from Maduro and Machado
Tragedy crept into politics. Maduro, imprisoned in New York since his kidnapping on January 3 by a US military command, was authorized to send a message to Venezuelans through the social networks run by those close to him. The deposed president said that “in this difficult hour” national unity, serenity and love are imperative. The country “has faced great trials, and from this we are also going to emerge strong, with faith, discipline and solidarity.”
Maduro asked “that no one be left alone, that each community take care of its children, its grandparents, its sick and that we all accompany the work of the rescue forces.” His heart concluded, it was with the victims. “May God bless and protect Venezuela!”ends the text. “May God protect the Venezuelan people, to our families and our homes. Today, more united than ever,” wrote his tenacious opponent María Corina Machado. “My prayers are with every Venezuelan home in these hours of anguish.”
Communications cut off
The authorities ordered the suspension of the subway and railway “to facilitate rescue tasks.” The domestic gas service has been disconnected in Caracas to avoid incidents. If this city is missing something, it’s new explosions. The memory of the North American military attack of January 3 is still fresh, with damaged buildings visible adding to the new bleak panorama. The earthquake found Venezuela in the midst of reconstruction in all areas.
“We will be there for our great new friends,” President Donald Trump promised. Subsequently, the North American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, contacted Rodríguez. “We are deploying search teams and rescue of Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. We will add others.” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil thanked the messages of solidarity. “The country values the offers of international aid and is working through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to manage and receive this necessary assistance in these difficult times.”
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