Venezuela earthquakes kill 230-plus as La Guaira rescue race intensifies

Two powerful earthquakes tore through northern Venezuela, devastating La Guaira and nearby cities. With hundreds dead, thousands injured and many missing, rescuers are racing against time as global aid arrives.

In Short

• La Guaira airport shut, complicating relief flights and emergency supply movement
• Residents searched rubble overnight as formal rescue teams remained limited outside Caracas
• Back-to-back shallow tremors amplified destruction, a Brazilian geophysicist later explained

More than 230 people were killed and at least 4,300 injured after two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday night, with thousands still reported missing as rescue efforts continued on Thursday. Neighbours in several cities dug through rubble in search of loved ones, while officials warned the toll was expected to rise.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes were among the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century and were felt across the region. La Guaira, on the coast north of Caracas, was among the worst-hit areas, with heavy damage and casualties, while the closure of the country’s main airport there further complicated aid operations. In Caracas, hundreds spent the night in parks, parking lots and other open spaces.

Health Minister Carlos Alvarado told state media late on Thursday that the official death toll had risen to around 235. State television showed injured people being pulled from debris covered in dust and blood, including children and animals. One woman was shown trapped under a cement slab with only a bare foot visible before rescuers pulled her out alive. But few government search teams were initially seen outside Caracas.

By Thursday morning, many residents were confronting scenes of severe destruction, with buildings reduced to skeletons, furniture hanging out of windows, helicopters overhead, flattened structures and cracked streets. Families put up missing-person flyers with photographs of relatives, while others circulated handwritten lists of names. Venezuelans abroad struggled to contact family members because of disrupted phone service.

Dayana Delgado, a mother of three, said residents rather than officials were digging through collapsed buildings. “I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said of her missing eight-year-old son. Elsewhere, one mother sobbed and collapsed as the bodies of her three- and 10-year-old children were wrapped in blankets and carried away, while others shouted the names of missing relatives or stood in shock.

Authorities said rescue teams were being diverted from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which was also devastated by a mudslide in 1999 that killed thousands. In the same area, Cristian Carreo stood looking at his charred apartment building leaning sharply to one side. “I lost everything,” he said. “There are people still inside, I imagine, that couldn’t get out. It’s incredibly devastating.” Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendao said he climbed through wreckage and passed a dead body before seeing a trapped woman signalling with her hand. “May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” Mendao said. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do.”

There were also signs of survival. Media reports showed a young man being brought out on a stretcher in Caracas’s San Bernardino district to applause, as his mother cried, “Leandro, I love you.” State television also showed a girl emerging from rubble covered in dust and wrapping herself in a dark sweatshirt. Caracas metropolitan rescue team head Jos Luis Nez said she was found in a 10-storey building in La Guaira that collapsed and flattened “like a pancake”. “We want to highlight this girl’s strength, determination and will to live,” Nez said.

The disaster is the latest challenge for acting President Delcy Rodrguez, who took office in January after the capture and removal from power of then-President Nicols Maduro by the United States. Rodrguez declared a state of emergency late on Wednesday and said the government was creating a USD 200 million reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes. On Thursday, she appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue work. “We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” Rodrguez said.

The US Geological Survey said both earthquakes were centred near Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometres west of Caracas. While Venezuela lies near multiple fault lines, strong earthquakes are far less common there than in many other parts of Latin America because of its position between the South American and Caribbean plates. Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil, said the back-to-back quakes and shallow seismic movements increased the damage. “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.

Shortly after United Nations officials in Venezuela called on the government to lift social media restrictions so people could access potentially life-saving information, users in the country were able to access X. The platform had been blocked by Maduro since August 2024 in an effort to suppress information-sharing among those who rejected his claim of victory in the July presidential election.

Foreign governments began sending assistance. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke to Rodrguez, said the United States was deploying help immediately. “We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big; it’ll be fast; and it’ll be effective,” Rubio said, while noting that the closure of the main airport near Caracas posed logistical problems. Venezuelan public television showed rescue workers and aid from Chile arriving at a military base in Aragua state early on Friday. A team of 80 specialists and eight search dogs from Switzerland also arrived with supplies, while Turkey said two flights would leave Istanbul on Friday carrying military, medical and rescue personnel and two search dogs. Leaders from Qatar, Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Canada also pledged help. Rescue teams from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic reached Venezuela on Thursday, along with rescuers and aid from Mexico. “No country is prepared to provide the response that’s needed. That’s what neighbouring countries are there for,” Dominican Air Force Major Carlos Olivares said.

Venezuelans living abroad were also trying to help. In Ecuador, Flix Rodrguez said his store was receiving donations from Venezuelans and Ecuadorians. “My business is always ready for whatever Venezuela needs,” he said. In Spokane, Washington, Gabby Graham said she usually sends money to Venezuela through a peer-to-peer payment to a local business that gives cash to her family, but since the earthquakes she has been unable to find the business owner or send money for food, water, medicines and toiletries. “I think it hasn’t been easy for them for years. Just now it’s just even worse because it’s about finding these things,” Graham said.

With the death toll at around 235, thousands injured and many still missing, rescue efforts continued across northern Venezuela as residents searched the ruins, authorities sought more equipment and international aid began arriving.

With PTI Inputs

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