Venezuela rescuers make final push for survivors

CARACAS: Rescue teams from multiple countries continued searching on Tuesday for any remaining survivors trapped beneath rubble after Venezuela’s twin earthquakes, while grieving families gathered at burial sites and morgues as the confirmed death toll rose above 1,700.

The two quakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, were described as the most powerful to hit Venezuela in more than a century. According to a preliminary satellite-based assessment published by Nasa, about 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed. The latest official figures put the number of dead at around 1,700 and the injured at 5,000, while authorities had not given an official count of those missing. Other estimates put the number of missing in the tens of thousands.

The United Nations said around 50,000 people remain listed as missing and estimated that the disaster created roughly 1.2 million tonnes of debris in La Guaira state, the worst-hit area. UN coordinator in Venezuela Gianluca Rampolla said 27 countries had deployed nearly 40 search-and-rescue teams, including more than 2,000 troops and other personnel, as well as over 160 dogs. She also said the United Nations would provide 10,000 body bags, while expressing hope that the final death toll would be lower.

Five days after the back-to-back earthquakes devastated entire neighbourhoods, the effort to recover bodies had become increasingly central as hopes of finding survivors diminished. The critical 72-hour period in which survivors were most likely to be found ended on Saturday at 6:04pm. Even so, a 21-year-old man identified as Aaron Levi was pulled alive from the rubble on Monday in the coastal town of Tanaguarena, according to a video shared by a photographer who witnessed the rescue.

Morgues, burials and mourning families

At Caracas’s only public cemetery, the two crematory ovens were operating at full capacity. Between Friday and Sunday, officials held between 60 and 70 burials each day. In La Guaira, a warehouse at the port was being used to store hundreds of unidentified bodies in white and black body bags, alongside a small number of coffins, as forensic teams worked to identify the dead.

Sergio Vergara, 42, said he found his nephew and the rest of the family in a collapsed building in La Guaira. He said the experience of retrieving them had been traumatic.

"It was a horrible experience, pulling him out, his children," he said.

At the cemetery in Caracas, Wilker Molalla waited for the remains of relatives believed to have died. He said several members of his family were among the missing dead from his household. "My family is there — I’m told my sister and her children are there, as well as the children of my brother," he added.

"There were 11 people in my household; only two of us survived because we were at work,"

Ports, airport and restrictions

The US military repaired and reopened Port of La Guaira on Monday. The USS Fort Lauderdale was docked there and was delivering aid. US airmen were also assisting with the restoration of traffic at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas, which was also badly damaged.

The government has militarised La Guaira and introduced a permit requirement for entry into the disaster zone. Residents have voiced anger over what they see as a slow and limited official response in a country already struggling with a deep crisis that has driven millions to leave in recent years.

On Monday, a 4.6-magnitude tremor renewed anxiety among residents already shaken by the earlier disaster. The United Nations said about 7 million people in Venezuela would be affected and estimated the quakes caused economic damage of $6.7 billion, equal to six per cent of the country’s GDP.

Machado says return is being blocked

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who left hiding in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, accused the government of preventing her from returning to Venezuela. In a video posted on X, she said the authorities had closed the airspace to stop her from entering the country.

"I am ready and close to Venezuela and will do whatever it takes for us to meet there,"

The government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez had not commented on the allegation, and Washington, which is coordinating operations on the ground, had also not commented.