Hopes Fading for Survivors After Venezuela Earthquake as Death Toll Rises

After the earthquakes in Venezuela, the smell of decomposing bodies is spreading through the disaster zone of La Guaira.

“The smell is a sign that there are still bodies under the rubble,” the human rights organization Provea wrote on platform X over the weekend. The official death toll so far stands at 1,450, according to the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. Around 3,200 people have been injured.

Tens of thousands of people are still listed as missing. About 30,000 Venezuelan emergency workers and 2,700 rescue experts from 24 countries have been deployed.

“Today we rescued survivors, therefore the rescue operations will not be called off,” acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on Sunday. According to experts, the chances of survival for those buried under rubble drop significantly after 72 hours — that is, three days.

Nevertheless, after 86 hours, international teams rescued a 60-year-old woman in Caraballeda, La Guaira, as El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele reported on X.

The government is checking whether buildings are habitable

According to the latest damage assessment, approximately 780 residential buildings and 38 hospitals were destroyed or severely damaged. Shopping centers and other public buildings also collapsed — a total of around 2,500 residential buildings and other facilities. At least 430 aftershocks were recorded following the earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale on Wednesday early evening (local time).

More than 70,000 families need humanitarian aid after the catastrophe. Many people are sleeping outside or in emergency shelters. The presidency has set up a special commission to assess the extent of the damage and the habitability of buildings, as President Rodríguez announced.

Desperate search by relatives

According to an unofficial platform for tracing missing persons, more than 47,000 people are currently considered missing — after nearly 79,000 missing-person reports were filed. However, these figures cannot be independently verified. People are also searching for the names of their relatives on lists of survivors, such as those in emergency shelters.

Venezuela was already in a difficult situation before the earthquakes. For years, the country has suffered from political tensions, economic problems, and one of the world’s biggest migration crises. In January, Washington carried out a military operation in the country, capturing authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro. The current president had been vice president in Maduro’s government.

In recent days, the acting president has faced growing criticism. After being booed during a tour of the capital, Caracas, on Friday, she was criticized on social media on Sunday over a ceremonial meeting with international rescue teams. “Every second matters. Every second. Yet Delcy Rodríguez’s government is preventing rescue workers from doing their job for a political stunt,” government critic and journalist Orlando Avendaño wrote on X.

Nobel Peace Prize winner wants to return to her homeland

Meanwhile, opposition politician María Corina Machado announced that she intends to return to her homeland because of the earthquakes. “Absolutely, the time has come,” she told Fox News. However, according to a report in the New York Times, the US government considers such a swift return inappropriate.

Last December, the politician, who had been living in hiding, secretly left Venezuela to personally accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Shortly afterward, while she was abroad, President Maduro was captured. Washington is now working closely with acting President Delcy Rodríguez. / Der Standard.