Venezuela quake death toll passes 4,000 as scale of recovery effort looms large | Venezuela
The death toll from Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes has surpassed 4,000, the government said Friday.
Venezuelan parliament speaker Jorge Rodríguez wrote on Telegram that at least 4,118 people were killed and 16,740 injured in back-to-back earthquakes on June 24 that devastated entire regions of the coastal state of La Guaira. Thousands more are listed as missing.
The 7.5 magnitude earthquake, the largest in more than a century in Venezuela, occurred 39 seconds after the 7.2 magnitude shock and destroyed all high-rise apartment blocks.
Although rescuers have stopped searching for survivors, family members continue to comb the ruins for their loved ones in hopes of giving them a dignified burial.
The 3.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the center of Caracas on Friday caused instant panic and led to the evacuation of buildings.
The scale of the recovery effort facing Venezuela, where government services have severely deteriorated due to a protracted economic crisis, is enormous.
The United Nations on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal for nearly $300 million for earthquake relief operations to help 1.3 million people in need of urgent assistance in the South American country, where nongovernmental organizations were until recently the target of government pressure. In the northern province of La Guaira, where most of the destruction occurred, mobile kitchens and clinics as well as field hospitals now occupy public spaces.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimates direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around $37 billion.
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has called for the release of frozen assets held abroad to be used for recovery.
On Wednesday, King Henry III. He said he had asked Charles to release about 30 tonnes of Venezuelan gold frozen under UK sanctions.
Delcy Rodríguez defended his country’s immediate response to the twin earthquakes and vowed that the country would not descend into social unrest.
Many Venezuelans expressed anger at what they saw as the US-backed government’s inadequate response to the disaster before international teams arrived.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
