US military to help relief efforts after Venezuela quake

US military personnel are arriving in quake-hit Venezuela to help expand airport capacity and reopen a key seaport to support relief efforts, the US Southern Command has said in a statement.

Simon Bolivar International Airport, which serves the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, was partially reopened Saturday after suffering damage in Wednesday's twin quakes along the country's northern coast.

A team of about 100 airmen with airfield management expertise and related equipment arrived yesterday to assist local authorities in "expanding the vital flow of inbound and outbound air traffic", the SOUTHCOM statement said.

About 130 Marines were to arrive at the port of La Guaira within the next 24 hours to help "open the port for much needed supplies and equipment to reach the heaviest hit parts of Venezuela by sea". the statement said.

Sailors and Marines from the USS Fort Lauderdale delivered supplies to the port of La Guaira yesterday using a landing craft, SOUTHCOM said.

The US military has also deployed various aircraft and helicopters to help with recovery efforts.

The US State Department has already sent a disaster response team of more than 250 personnel, including three special search-and-rescue units with dogs, to help locate survivors.

Last week, the US said it was mobilising $150 million (€131 million) in aid to Venezuela.

Rescue teams are still searching to find more survivors of the two powerful earthquakes that struckV enezuela last week.

The death toll from Wednesday's twin earthquakes rose to at least 1,450 as of Saturday as foreign rescue teams began arriving into La Guaira, the hardest-hit state of a country already involved in a deep political and economic crisis.

Dozens of buildings collapsed into piles of sand and rubble in the coastal state, about 40km north of Caracas.

"We must report that the number of fatalities has reached 1,450 people, women and men who lost their lives as a result of the most brutal natural catastrophe that our country has eversuffered in its history," said interim President Delcy Rodriguez.

Some 3,150 people remained injured, 12,721 have been displaced and 774 buildings have collapsed, she said.

The government - headed by Rodriguez since her predecessor was ousted by the US in a January raid - thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then tightened access to the road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles.

The government said at least 33 people had been rescued by Saturday evening, including several children, while tens of thousands remained ‌unaccounted for.

Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country's political opposition, a slight decline from 55,000 people a day earlier.

The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were ⁠possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America's deadliest of the last century.

The US State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by US rescue crews, posting a video on X showing rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.

A Colombian rescue team also saved an 11-year-old boy, who had been trapped some 3 meters deep inrubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.

Pope Leo told worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome that he wanted "to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes" and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.