Catia La Mar, La Guaira, July 8, 2026.Image: keystone
July 9, 2026, 1:57 p.mJuly 9, 2026, 1:57 p.m
Two weeks after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodriguez is committed to making the country’s blocked foreign assets accessible as disaster relief. She has asked the International Monetary Fund to release financial resources set by the institution, Rodriguez said at a news conference. The money should benefit struggling families and areas of the country particularly affected by the disaster.
She also has a letter to the British King Charles III. sent and claimed gold that was at the Bank of England and was owed to Venezuela, said Rodriguez. “This gold belongs to our people and this gold should be there to serve them.”
The official death toll is now 3,811. There are also 16,740 injured, said the President of the National Assembly and brother of the acting head of government, Jorge Rodriguez, on the X platform on Wednesday evening (local time).
Finding buried people still alive two weeks after the double earthquake is now very unlikely. Surrounded by the smell of corpses, desperate relatives in the particularly hard-hit area in the state of La Guaira still hope for signs of life among the rubble. According to UN emergency aid coordinator Tom Fletcher, the international aid workers are now concerned with distributing water, food and medicine in the disaster area in the north of the South American country.
Two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela on June 24th. More than a thousand significantly weaker aftershocks followed. (sda/dpa)