Venezuela Earthquake Rescue Race Hits Critical Juncture as Death Toll Tops 1450
Rescue teams in Venezuela raced against time Sunday as the window to find survivors in the rubble of last Wednesday’s devastating twin earthquakes narrowed to a critical juncture, with the death toll surpassing 1,450 and nearly 50,000 people still listed as unaccounted for across the hardest-hit coastal state of La Guaira.
The catastrophic 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck the Caracas suburb of Catia La Mar on Wednesday, reducing entire neighborhoods to sand and rubble. By Saturday evening, the 72-hour mark that rescue experts consider the probable limit for finding living survivors had already passed, leaving crews scrambling to pull any remaining survivors before hope dims entirely.
International Rescue Teams Join the Hunt as Window Closes
More than 2,600 foreign rescue workers from multiple countries poured into La Guaira to assist, joining local volunteers who had spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the ruins often with bare hands and without heavy equipment. The U.S. State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by American crews on Saturday, posting video of helmeted rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped child from the rubble. A Colombian team saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped three meters deep in rubble, his eyes covered to shield them from the shock of daylight after his mother and sister were killed. Mexican rescuers in the town of Caraballeda pulled another 11-year-old boy from the wreckage Saturday evening.
Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, described the brutal reality facing crews on the ground. “There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” he said. His 80-strong team had located multiple people alive beneath the rubble using eight search dogs but had been unable to extract them in time to save them, he added.
Political Fallout as Nation Confronts Deadliest Disaster in Its History
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez confirmed the grim milestone in a televised address. “We must report that the number of fatalities has reached 1,450 people, women and men who lost their lives as a result of the most brutal natural catastrophe that our country has ever suffered in its history,” she said. Rodriguez, who assumed power after her predecessor was ousted by U.S. authorities in a January raid, has portrayed herself as an agent of change, but the disaster now threatens to erode her standing at a fragile moment for Venezuelan politics.
Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of the interim president, said crews remained active in a final push. “Each life saved is a miracle; each life saved is the answer to the effort of thousands of people to whom we will be forever grateful,” he said in a televised speech. A senior U.S. official said Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars was expected to be announced within days, in addition to the $150 million the Trump administration had already committed. Pope Leo told worshippers at Sunday’s Angelus prayer that he wanted “to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes” and thanked rescue workers.
Families Dig With Bare Hands as Government Response Falters
Families and volunteers who had worked for days without official assistance expressed fury at the limited heavy equipment and sparse government presence during the critical early hours. Videos circulated on social media showing residents clawing through debris with their bare hands while waiting for machines and trained crews that never arrived. The government had thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then tightened access to the main road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles — a decision that rescue workers said only compounded the chaos. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that more than 10,000 deaths are possible from the twin quakes, which would rank among Latin America’s deadliest natural disasters of the last century.
