The death toll from two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela Wednesday evening climbed to at least 188 by Thursday, with more than 200 people still trapped beneath rubble, roughly 1,500 injured, and a website tracking the missing listing more than 35,000 people unaccounted for as rescue teams raced against time in the country’s worst natural disaster in over a century.
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency, announced a $200 million reconstruction fund, and appealed to businesses to deploy heavy machinery to help dig survivors out of collapsed buildings, as the scale of the catastrophe began to emerge across northern Venezuela.
What We Know So Far
Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly and brother of the acting president, confirmed the updated figures Thursday, saying at least 188 people were dead, more than 200 trapped, 1,520 injured, and at least 250 buildings damaged or destroyed, the Associated Press confirmed.
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the two earthquakes struck within seconds of each other Wednesday evening. The first, measuring 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast roughly 170 kilometers west of Caracas at a depth of 22 kilometers. The second, registering 7.5 and making it the strongest earthquake to strike Venezuela since 1900, followed less than a minute later at a depth of 10 kilometers southwest of Moron, Reuters confirmed.
Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil, said the rapid succession of the two strikes amplified the destruction significantly. “It is as if I am screaming and then someone starts screaming, too. That amplifies the vibration and adds to the potential hazard,” Ferreira said.
The coastal state of La Guaira, north of Caracas, suffered the heaviest damage. Rodriguez described it as a “disaster zone,” where dozens of buildings collapsed and rescue workers were spread dangerously thin. Caracas’s main airport, located in La Guaira, was damaged and closed, creating logistical challenges for incoming international aid, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged.
Scenes of devastation emerged across northern Venezuela through the night and into Thursday morning. One mother collapsed in grief as the bodies of her three-year-old and ten-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away. Others screamed the names of missing loved ones. Children, animals, and civilians covered in dust and blood were pulled from concrete rubble, the Associated Press reported.
In La Guaira, volunteers were digging through debris with their bare hands in the absence of sufficient machinery. Yamileth Jimenez told Reuters her 19-year-old son was believed trapped beneath their seven-story apartment building. “He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” she said. “My father died three days ago and now this happens. It’s just my son and me.”
Pedro Perez, 64, said he had lost both his home and his upholstery workshop. “We lost everything. We have no food or medicines. We managed to get out in time and only have minor injuries. We hope help arrives quickly,” he said.
Reuters witnessed looting at two stores in La Guaira as desperate residents searched for food and water. Several towns near the epicenter, including El Junquito and La Guaira, remained without power Thursday morning.
A website established to track missing persons, shared by Venezuelan opposition figures, listed more than 35,000 people unaccounted for by early Thursday afternoon. Reuters noted it could not independently verify every report on the site.
The USGS, using its PAGER predictive modeling system, projected the final death toll would most likely run into the thousands, with a substantial probability of exceeding 10,000.
Near the epicenter in Moron, at least eight people were confirmed dead, including three children, municipal Mayor Emily Riera told Reuters. Houses near the seaside town collapsed, leaving residents without water or electricity.
Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendano described climbing through wreckage in La Guaira past a dead body before spotting a woman trapped and signaling with her hand. “May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” Mendano said. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do.”
What Authorities Are Saying
Rodriguez appealed for calm, unity, and international support in a series of addresses Wednesday night and Thursday morning. She thanked leaders including Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for their expressions of solidarity and confirmed that international rescue teams were expected within hours.
Rodriguez urged businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations immediately, as residents in La Guaira and other affected areas complained publicly that government help had been slow to arrive. Dayana Delgado, searching desperately for her missing eight-year-old son, pointed to neighbors digging bare-handed and asked where the machinery that officials had promised actually was. “I want to know where my child is, if he is trapped or in a shelter,” she said.
The Caracas stock exchange was closed and repurposed as a coordination center for rescue efforts, Reuters confirmed. Schools were canceled for the remainder of the week and several school buildings were designated as emergency shelters and donation collection points.
The Venezuelan Red Cross confirmed its own headquarters had been critically damaged but said rescue teams had been dispatched to the worst affected areas. The French embassy in Caracas also suffered significant damage.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the organization was coordinating the rapid deployment of international rescue teams and warned that “a massive collective effort” would be needed in a country where eight million people were already dependent on humanitarian assistance before the earthquakes struck.
The U.N.’s Venezuela human rights mission called on the government to lift social media restrictions, describing access to information as “a matter of life and death.” Shortly afterward, Venezuelans gained access to X, which former President Nicolas Maduro had blocked since August 2024 in an effort to suppress communication among those who rejected his disputed election victory.
Rubio confirmed the United States was immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and additional assistance, while the Pentagon was preparing to send assets to help address damage at Caracas’s airport.
Why This Matters
Venezuela’s earthquake disaster is unfolding against a backdrop of pre-existing crisis that makes it categorically more dangerous than a comparable natural disaster in a more stable nation.
More than a decade of economic deterioration, political turmoil, and mass emigration had already left Venezuela’s infrastructure severely weakened before Wednesday’s earthquakes struck. Roads, hospitals, emergency response systems, and communication networks were all operating well below capacity. Eight million Venezuelans required humanitarian aid even before the disaster, and more than 7.7 million had already left the country during years of economic collapse and political repression.
The situation is further complicated by the country’s political transition. Rodriguez has been governing as acting president since January, when Trump ordered a surprise military operation that resulted in the capture of former President Nicolas Maduro, who has since been transferred to U.S. custody and has pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and weapons charges. Many Venezuelans continue to question the legitimacy of the administration Rodriguez leads, and the earthquakes have placed that government under immediate and intense pressure to demonstrate its capacity to respond.
Eighty-year-old pensioner Maria Romero, who was helped out of her home by police in southern Caracas, said the quake was worse than anything she had experienced in her lifetime. “This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” she said, referring to the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that killed 240 people in Caracas nearly six decades ago.
The closure of Caracas’s main airport in La Guaira has created a logistical bottleneck for the international aid beginning to flow toward Venezuela, as military and cargo aircraft that would normally land there must now be rerouted or staged from neighboring countries.
Geophysically, Venezuela’s position at the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates makes strong earthquakes possible, though they have historically been less frequent than in Pacific-facing nations along the Ring of Fire. The last truly catastrophic seismic event in Venezuelan history occurred in 1812, when an estimated 30,000 people died.
What Happens Next
Rescue operations were ongoing Thursday across La Guaira, Caracas, and multiple surrounding states, with Venezuelan authorities diverting teams from less affected areas to concentrate resources in the coastal zone where collapse rates were highest.
International teams from Qatar, Mexico, El Salvador, and other nations were expected to arrive within hours. The United Nations said teams were positioned and would deploy rapidly. The U.S. said it was addressing the airport situation in coordination with the Pentagon to ensure aid reached the country despite the logistical disruption.
Rodriguez said the government was working to restart the Moron Petrochemical Complex, Venezuela’s second-largest operating facility, after a local fire chief confirmed initial damage assessments had been completed. Chevron confirmed all its employees were accounted for and operations were continuing. Shell also said its Venezuelan staff were unhurt.
Families across Venezuela and among the diaspora abroad were still working Thursday to confirm the whereabouts of relatives. Handwritten lists of names circulated on social media alongside missing-person flyers, as thousands of people awaited word from areas where cellphone and internet service remained disrupted.
With official casualty figures still climbing, the airport closed, La Guaira described by the acting president herself as a disaster zone, and USGS modeling projecting a final toll potentially in the tens of thousands, the full dimensions of this catastrophe will take days, and perhaps weeks, to fully understand.
Reuters/AP
