The death toll from the two back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday has risen sharply, with the interim president Delcy Rodriguez saying that 589 people have now been confirmed dead and 2,980 others injured. Speaking within the last hour, she said the armed forces were taking control of the areas hit hardest by the disaster as the scale of the destruction became clearer.
Rodriguez announced that the authorities had decided to militarise the coastal state of La Guaira, the area worst affected by the stronger of the two quakes. She said the Bolivarian National Armed Forces were on the ground responding to the emergency and were distributing food and water to a population left without basic supplies.
Even with the official figure standing at 589, the human cost may be far higher. Around 50,000 people are reportedly still missing, and more than 100 buildings are said to have been razed to the ground. Similar scenes of collapsed apartment blocks and rescuers picking through debris have been repeated right across the capital, Caracas.
In La Guaira, where the damage is most severe, hospitals are described as overwhelmed and the military has been sent in to help. Rescue teams are still clawing through the rubble of fallen buildings in search of survivors, and Rodriguez said that dozens of people had already been pulled out alive, allowing some families to be reunited.
There have been rare moments of hope. Rescuers managed to lift a young toddler to safety after the child had been buried beneath a collapsed building, and another young child was also pulled from the wreckage. Such rescues are seen as especially significant because the first 72 hours after an earthquake are considered the most critical window for finding people alive.
Away from the capital, the response has been far more improvised. In remote villages such as San Jose, there has been no mass rescue operation and no heavy machinery, leaving local people to dig with whatever tools they can find. Residents who reached Caracas described early confusion and a striking absence of first responders, with no sirens and little official presence, as communities and motorcyclists organised their own aid convoys.
International rescue workers have been arriving to support the effort, while ordinary Venezuelans gather donations of clothing, food, medicine and drinking water to send to La Guaira. With tens of thousands still unaccounted for and search operations continuing, officials have warned that the toll could climb further in the days ahead.