This is what it looks like in Venezuela after the earthquakes. (Photo: Javier Campos / NurPhoto via AFP)
The death toll after two earthquakes in Venezuela has meanwhile risen to 920.
Tens of thousands are still missing.
According to Tom Fletcher, the United Nations (UN) head of humanitarian affairs and relief, more than 50,000 people are currently still missing after two powerful earthquakes occurred within a minute of each other in the north of the country on Wednesday evening.
The coastal area of La Guaira, near the capital Caracas, was the worst hit. Buildings in this area collapsed one after the other after the earthquakes with a strength of 7.2 and 7.5 respectively.
The two earthquakes are the most powerful to hit Venezuela since a 7.7 earthquake in 1900 along the coast.
‘Lack of official response’
Meanwhile, the government of Venezuela is fiercely criticized for the perceived lack of an official response to the earthquakes.
AFP reports that in some areas of Caracas, due to the lack of heavy machinery or official aid, family members, neighbors and volunteers have been digging in the rubble with their bare hands for the past two days in the hope of finding survivors.
Caracas residents booed interim leader Delcy Rodriguez on Friday during her visit to a devastated neighborhood in Caracas, as anger grew over the perceived lack of an official response.
AFP observed workers this week using sledgehammers to break through debris and calling for “absolute silence” in an attempt to hear the cries of survivors.
This is what it looks like in Venezuela after the earthquakes. (Photo: Javier Campos / NurPhoto via AFP)
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA meanwhile said search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilized to help find survivors.
Spanish, Salvadorian, Swiss, Colombian and Mexican rescue teams are already on the scene to help.
“It’s a very, very complex emergency response,” Fletcher told AFP, warning that the death toll could rise significantly.
Aftershocks and destroyed buildings still pose significant danger.
Venezuela’s worst earthquakes in more than a century come after the oil-rich country experienced more than a decade of economic collapse. Moreover, the country still finds itself in a fragile transition phase six months after pres. Nicolas Maduro was captured by the US.
Rodriguez said on Friday that she received a call from US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio who “reaffirmed their commitment to assistance by sending rescue workers, specialized equipment, support for temporary shelters and humanitarian aid for the affected families”.
This is what it looks like in Venezuela after the earthquakes. (Photo: Javier Campos / NurPhoto via AFP)
Washington said earlier this week it was sending a disaster response team of more than 250 personnel, including three special search-and-rescue units with dogs trained to locate people trapped under the rubble.
A senior US military official has since landed in Caracas to oversee Washington’s relief efforts.
“Even before the earthquakes, millions of people across Venezuela faced food insecurity, collapsing health services, protection risks and limited access to basic services,” the UN and other relief agencies said in a statement on Friday.
“The international community must not allow this state of emergency to deepen a greater human tragedy.”
Earthquakes of similar magnitude claimed more than 200,000 lives in Haiti in January 2010 and 73,000 lives in Kashmir in October 2005.
