Venezuelan volunteers dig graves for quake victims
At the La Esperanza cemetery in western Venezuela, local volunteers are digging graves, emptying coffins and helping families search for loved ones for victims of the devastating twin earthquakes that hit the country last month.
In the hills above the badly damaged town of Catia la Mar, local volunteers working with some cemetery workers buried 314 people at the La Esperanza cemetery, community council president Elis Zabala, 33, said Tuesday.
The approximately 100 people buried are identified only by a number linked to morgue records.
Zabala stated that the volunteers were exhausted and said, “We put our heart and soul into this work, but I feel tired.” Many people in the society also need aid such as fuel, medicine, water and food.
Volunteers often perform work performed by government teams in other countries.
Venezuelans have criticized the government for its slow response to two earthquakes on June 24 and say it has been ineffective for nearly two weeks.
The top US diplomat in Caracas said on Tuesday that Venezuela had complied with Washington’s demands to step up humanitarian intervention rather than directly addressing criticism of the government that was put in place after the ouster of former President Nicolas Maduro.
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, has fiercely defended the government’s response to earthquakes. Although he offered no evidence of his accusation, Rodriguez said there was a media conspiracy to discredit the official response.
“The interim government, as I said, is fully compliant with the demands to advance this massive humanitarian response,” U.S. Chargé d’Affaires John Barrett said in a call with reporters when asked about criticism of the government’s disaster response and his earlier praise for Rodriguez. he said.
Barrett, who told media last week that he has “great confidence” in local officials, said total US humanitarian aid for the earthquakes now exceeds US$310 million ($447 million). Political analysts said Venezuela’s response capacity was exhausted by decades of economic and political turmoil.
The death toll in the earthquake rose to 3,685, and nearly 18,000 people were left homeless after two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 occurred a few seconds apart, authorities said Tuesday.
Civilians managed most of the rescue and recovery operations on the ground, with the help of professional rescue teams from around the world, firefighters and volunteers from the military.
Civilians also provided much of the aid in kind, such as food and clothing, in the first days after the earthquake, especially in the hardest-hit La Guaira province. Global humanitarian organizations, including the International Rescue Committee, said the response did not meet the scale of humanitarian need.
