Thousands of people are still believed to be under the rubble.Image: keystone
June 28, 2026, 02:01June 28, 2026, 02:01
The extent of the earthquake catastrophe in Venezuela is becoming increasingly clear. The preliminary death toll has already risen to 1,430 and more than 3,200 people were injured, as the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, announced. Thousands of people are still believed to be under the rubble. Three days after the double earthquake, hopes of finding any survivors are dwindling by the hour. However, many are still found alive.
For example, a Colombian team managed to rescue an 11-year-old in the state of La Guaira after a six-hour operation, as a video from the Colombian disaster agency UNGRD shows. Teams from El Salvador and Spain also celebrated successful rescues.
There were 430 aftershocks after Wednesday’s magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, said Rodríguez, the brother of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. More than 70,000 families were supported by the authorities after the disaster. The earthquakes caused considerable destruction, particularly in the state of La Guaira, but also in the capital Caracas. In some cases, entire streets with high-rise buildings have been razed to the ground.
Probably no survivors in collapsed residential building in Caracas
The deployment of international rescue teams, including from Germany, has accelerated the search for survivors. But it also brought some sad certainty for relatives of missing people. After conducting reconnaissance work, Mexican rescue workers ruled out the possibility of finding people still alive in a collapsed building in the Chacao district of the capital Caracas.
“They consider it very unlikely that there are any survivors there because of the weight of the structure,” Chacao Mayor Gustavo Duque said in a video in front of the Petunia residential building. After an initial inspection, the rescue team deployed there found that the concrete slabs were completely compressed.
Chacao Capital District was severely affected
The Chacao district in the east of the capital is among the worst affected areas. In the modern neighborhoods of Los Palos Grandes and Altamira, several buildings have collapsed, similar to the magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 1967 that killed around 250 people.
The surrounding streets have been cordoned off by police and soldiers since Wednesday’s earthquake to prevent desperate relatives looking for news of missing people from entering the scene of the accident.
Silvia D’Avino cried in front of the rescue teams’ heavy construction equipment. Her sister and her son lived in one of the collapsed apartment complexes. “As soon as I found out what had happened, I came here and found that the building was in ruins,” she told the German Press Agency.
Boos for the president
On Friday, President Rodríguez visited Chacao. According to media reports, she was booed. A woman accused her of exploiting the tragedy for political purposes, as can be seen in a video published by the newspaper El Nacional, among others.
As the former deputy of long-time ruler Nicolás Maduro, Rodríguez has been in charge of Venezuela’s government since the US military captured Maduro in Caracas in January to try him on drug charges in the US.
The whereabouts of tens of thousands of people remain unclear
Many residents in the affected regions do not have a permanent roof over their heads. Rodríguez explained on
According to the president, more than 380 residential buildings and 13 hospitals were destroyed or seriously damaged. Shopping centers and other public buildings also collapsed. The whereabouts of tens of thousands of people are completely unclear, relatives often cannot reach each other – electricity and mobile phone networks have not yet been restored across the board.
According to the operators, more than 55,000 people are currently missing on an internet portal set up specifically to search for missing people. Relatives and acquaintances can upload photos along with further information on the unofficial platform. However, the information cannot be independently verified.
Meanwhile, the critical time window for finding survivors is gradually closing. Experts assume that the chances of missing and buried people decrease significantly after 72 hours. (sda/dpa)