The situation becomes more desperate by the hour in Venezuela, as residents dig through the rubble of houses and buildings that collapsed three days after the devastating double earthquake of 7.2 and 75 magnitude, aware that time to find survivors is running out – a third tremor was felt on the night of Friday, the 26th, this one measuring 4.7 magnitude.
Authorities announced that they would restrict access to La Guaira, the epicenter of the destruction, as chaos and traffic began to hamper search efforts. Anyone wanting to enter will now have to obtain official authorization, although few details have been released about who will be allowed through.
Faced with a shortage of government rescuers, Venezuelans began searching for missing relatives on their own, while the human toll from Wednesday’s earthquakes rose to at least 920 dead and more than 51,000 missing. In several of the hardest-hit areas, residents reported seeing few state rescue teams, despite authorities trying to engineer a robust response.
Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours a decisive window for extracting people alive from the rubble, although this period could be extended if there is access to food and water.
“Every person saved is a miracle,” said Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly – the Venezuelan Legislature. “We will hide absolutely nothing about the size of this tragedy.”
Families await news
In the state of La Guaira, north of the capital, Caracas, Nazareth Jimenez cried on a family member’s shoulder as he watched neighbors use hammers and power tools to try to cut through the concrete slabs of a building reduced to a mountain of rubble. She was overcome with anguish as she awaited news about her siblings, nephews and friends.
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“My God, how are we going to get them out of there?” muttered Jimenez.
“We are asking the government and countries around the world for help,” she said, pleading for machines capable of removing the collapsed structures. “There are still people alive inside.”
Government forces distributed food and water to survivors in La Guaira, and acting president Delcy Rodríguez said her government was providing a full response during these “critical hours to rescue people alive.”
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She welcomed the arrival of international rescuers and humanitarian aid. He said La Guaira had been militarized and that more support was on the way, although residents said the effort was still only a fraction of what was needed.
Political challenge
The tragedy poses a huge challenge for Rodríguez, a former vice president who took office in January following the capture and removal of then-president Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been experiencing economic disorder for more than a decade, and many reject the legitimacy of the political movement represented by Rodríguez.
The death toll was expected to rise, and people reported tens of thousands missing in independent digital databases. These numbers likely included people with no contact due to a lack of cell phone signal, and some records may be duplicates.
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As of early Friday afternoon, the number of injured people exceeded 3,300, and authorities said they had rescued 243 people.
Country in shock
The International Organization for Migration has stated that up to 6,76 million people could be affected, around 2 million of them in Caracas alone. Experts said the destruction was worsened by the rapid succession of shallow earthquakes.
Loyce Pace, regional director for the Americas at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said “people are still terrified to return to what was their home.”
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In fact, many continued to sleep on the street. Omar Reyes said that around 20 family members died. “I was alone in this life,” said Reyes, walking through the rubble where two of his children were buried.
In the city of Maiquetia, people formed queues outside stores and pharmacies, which served one at a time, with the doors closed. At one point, a woman in the crowd threw herself to the ground to protect a package of diapers with her own body, desperate not to lose it.
Traffic and crowds of motorcyclists hampered the search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly called for silence to try to listen for signs of life under the rubble, but civilian and uniformed motorcyclists continued to honk their horns and speed up, to the frustration of rescue teams.
Some people began taking basic items such as toilet paper and food from stores in Catia La Mar, next to the country’s main airport. Others surrounded a civilian truck that was distributing bread and water, until a soldier intervened. The parking lot of a pharmacy became an improvised shelter, with tarps, hammocks and tents.
A few kilometers away, 28-year-old Yuleidy Cadenas was across the street from a collapsed public housing building, hoping that her son, mother and brother would be pulled out alive.
She fled barefoot from another building as it collapsed on Wednesday and discovered that the 12-story tower where her mother lived had collapsed in a domino effect.
“I climbed into the rubble and asked them to respond, and no one responded, not my brother, not my son, not my mother,” Cadenas said.
International aid
Venezuelan authorities said on Friday that 861 volunteers from Mexico, the US, El Salvador, Switzerland, Colombia and other countries were already in the country, and that more teams were on their way from other nations.
Rodríguez said he spoke with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, and that both reaffirmed their commitment to sending rescue teams and aid equipment.
