Venezuela faces aftershocks as questions mount over earthquake response – National
As the window to find survivors quickly dwindled, Venezuelans on Monday crawled into the rubble of buildings toppled by last week's earthquake, and attention turned to the country's crisis that could last for years.
Aid organizations say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster is the most critical time for rescue, although survival can be extended if people have access to food and water. Five days after the twin earthquakes, questions have been raised about whether the cash-strapped government will be able to muster the effort needed to care for the thousands of people left homeless.
In other developments, an aftershock measuring 4.6 magnitude triggered a disaster zone in the northern province of La Guaira.
The death toll stands at more than 1,700 people, according to the government, which has long been able to control coverage of major events by Venezuelan media.
The Venezuelan government is stepping up its efforts
Facing criticism that authorities have done too little, too little, government officials have boosted their rescue and rescue efforts.
In a speech on Monday, Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly and the brother of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, said that electricity has been restored to 90% of the heavily affected region of La Guaira. He said the authorities are running to inspect the damaged buildings which are still dangerous and have set up 15 temporary shelters for the displaced people.
Most news reports in Venezuela avoided sensitive political questions related to the earthquake, such as the widespread collapse of buildings, and instead stuck to safe stories about rescuing heroes.
Delcy Rodríguez, who took office in January after US President Donald Trump impeached former President Nicolás Maduro, shared photos Monday of emergency workers pulling a man from the rubble to applause after a 43-hour search effort.
“Each life saved is a victory for hope,” he wrote in X.
But such bright spots are rare in the epicenter of the earthquake, where families remain vigilant in search areas.
“We have to stay strong, without food, without sleep,” said Ana Rada, watching as the guards looked for her brother. “Until I see the body, I still have hope.”
Aftershock shakes the rescuers
Following a weekend of minor earthquakes and what the government said were more than 600 earthquakes since Wednesday's quake, a powerful storm on Monday struck 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Caraballeda on Venezuela's Caribbean coast and measured 4.6 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey. The Colombian Geological Survey puts the magnitude at 5.1.
Jorge Rodríguez said there were no reports of additional damage, but the latest tremor sent residents of the capital Caracas crying into the streets.
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“We are here again, we are back on the road.
Questions about the level of US aid
Many countries have offered help. But the crisis raised expectations for the Trump administration after its takeover of Venezuela's oil industry earlier this year.
At a press conference, a senior State Department official said 300 first responders sent from the US are working on the ground and two C-17 military transport planes are arriving daily with supplies. Financial support from the US now exceeds $300 million.
The U.S. military is also helping with some repairs, including the damage to the port in La Guaira to get more supplies at sea. Another team is helping to control air traffic after the earthquake destroyed part of the tower at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, said the official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
However, it seemed unlikely that the Trump administration would provide Venezuelans with the protection of temporary aid as previous administrations have done for people from disaster-stricken countries already in the US Such a step was taken after the earthquakes in 2010 in Haiti and 2001 in El Salvador.
Venezuelans have been the focus of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
More than 100 people who had recently been deported to the US were being held in a hotel in La Guaira that was destroyed during the earthquake, which caused a stir to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors.
The rescuers included a miner who had been deported from the US
Among the rescuers digging through the rubble Monday in La Guaira was 31-year-old miner Jean Sosa, who was deported from the United States in January because of an immigration hearing and returned to Caracas last month, haunted by an odyssey that began in chains at an immigration detention center in Arizona.
He built a new life in New York City four years ago, he said, working at a grocery store near Penn Station, before Department of Homeland Security officials took him into custody. They eventually interned him in immigration detention centers across the US before abandoning him and a busload of other deportees in southern Mexico without his passport, phone or wallet.
Since he arrived on Wednesday in La Guaira, Sosa has been pulling people out of the rubble with his old pick and shovel because there are no national rescue teams. In the first few days before more help arrived, survivors were taken to hospitals by private car or motorbike, he said.
“I am not involved in politics, but I believe that many people could have been saved if there had been equipment and the support of senior officials from the beginning,” he told the Associated Press, wearing a helmet and a black T-shirt that had been wiped clean of dust in the port city where he said he had already rescued 20 people alive.
Those who were rescued comforted him, he said even though they did not have the necessary things. “We work without gloves, we don't have equipment, we don't have equipment to borrow, we fix bandages and other things we can do.”
The full extent of the damage remains unclear
Experts and aid organizations find it difficult to assess the extent of the damage, but generally agree that government figures are too low.
Jorge Rodríguez said that as of Monday, 15,866 people have been affected, while the number of damaged or collapsed buildings has reached 855.
Such reviews are given through short televised announcements where reporters have no opportunity to ask questions or request information. In another obstacle to disclosure, Venezuela's media union said on Monday that the Ministry of Communications has blocked access to La Guaira for at least 48 hours for foreign journalists.
He said the department expressed the need to “reduce noise during rescue operations.” The union called on the government to drop the law saying: “Preventing reporting does not solve the emergency. As the hours pass, the health situation may worsen, and the country needs reliable and timely information, especially the families of the victims.”
A preliminary assessment by NASA estimated that the earthquake damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings. The assessment relies on radar imagery from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellites, which can detect changes in infrastructure.
The United Nations said up to 6.8 million Venezuelans could be affected, which could mean displacement or the loss of essential services such as electricity and water.
The Venezuelan Red Cross said it expects its efforts to help at least 300,000 people to continue for two years.
Due to the chaos and poor cell phone services, many Venezuelans have turned to non-governmental digital websites to report their loved ones as missing. More than 50,000 people have been reported missing on one such list, although it is unclear how many have been found.
Firefighter Kleider Carrillo said nothing prepared him for the destruction of La Guaira.
“If you study this field, you are trained for situations like this,” he said. But what is in the books is another thing.
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.
