Venezuela quake survivors say residents, foreign teams led rescue efforts

Laguaira,UPDATED: Jul 1, 2026 13:12 IST

Six days after twin earthquakes hit northern Venezuela, survivors in La Guaira state said rescue and recovery work was being driven largely by residents and foreign teams, while the government failed to deliver a co-ordinated response when it was most needed. The June 24 quakes, measured at 7.2 and 7.5, killed 1,943 people, injured more than 10,500 and left thousands missing, according to the government.

The disaster has also sharpened questions over the state’s ability to carry out basic functions under the ruling party, which has been in power for 27 years and is now headed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez. Many residents said that in the crucial first 72 hours after buildings collapsed in La Guaira, Caracas and nearby areas, the official response on the ground was focused mainly on directing traffic.

Among those waiting for help is Angelica Mundrain, who wants the bodies of her son, niece and nephew to be recovered from her destroyed beachfront apartment building. She said she had spent every minute of the previous six days waiting for the heavy machinery needed to move the concrete slabs and twisted metal trapping them. Sitting on a chair in the street in front of what remained of the 11-storey building, she said: "We've been abandoned. We feel helpless. What we have seen is a lack of organisation, a lack of empathy, a lack of everything."

Residents said civilians, often on their own and sometimes with the help of foreign rescuers, searched through rubble for loved ones. Ambulances were caught in long traffic jams, hospitals were short of staff and supplies, and emergency personnel had little or no equipment. A week after the quakes, many people in La Guaira’s coastal communities said most rescues and recoveries had been carried out by fellow Venezuelans and foreign teams using thermal cameras, sound detectors and trained dogs. They also said that while civilians and foreign rescuers worked, uniformed Venezuelan personnel stood by and state workers took selfies.

David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, said the tragedy showed that the inability of the state went beyond the January 3 capture of then-president Nicolas Maduro by US forces. "It also can't do anything like get started with digging people out," he said, adding that this should worry Rodriguez, who was sworn in after Maduro was deposed and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Smilde linked the weak response to low public-sector pay and corruption, including people staying on the government payroll without working for months or years. He said a functioning government would have defined emergency protocols, adding: "It's like trying to have a baseball team with three people on the field. You're not sure who's going to be the pitcher, who's going to be catching, and who's going to be outfielder."

Residents also said wealth and political connections appeared to shape where help went first. At one collapsed building with a heavy police presence and military school students on site, people guessed that officials or politically connected residents were involved. Police from a neighbouring state were searching for a captain there, while the students and some members of the Guard were looking for a major general. A telescopic crane, the kind Mundrain said she needed to recover her family, remained parked for hours at that building’s entrance. Relatives of wealthy families living there were able to rent it, but Mundrain said she could not. Pointing to her own building, she said: "I think that if there were someone in a position of authority in each of these apartments, there would be a well-oiled machine working like they have in other residences."

Anger over the response has also led to clashes. In one case, when a government-provided excavator tried to leave the site of a flattened public housing building, residents blocked traffic to stop it and pulled the operator from the cab. Even so, rescuers on Tuesday were still pulling some survivors from the debris, giving families some hope despite the falling chances of finding people alive with each passing hour. The first 48 to 72 hours after a natural disaster are considered crucial for rescues, although survival can last longer if people have access to food and water.

Electrician Daniel Castillo said he pulled his mother and son alive from their second-floor flat in a collapsed public housing building in La Guaira within hours of the quake, but his brother’s body remained inside until the next day. On Tuesday, while waiting in line for a free bag of hygiene supplies from a tent run by the armed forces, he criticised the authorities. "You see the guards, and their uniforms are spotless, not dirty at all," Castillo said, contrasting Guard members with dust-covered civilians and foreign rescuers who had searched through rubble for days. "The government did nothing." The experience of survivors such as Mundrain and Castillo has come to reflect broader anger over a rescue effort that many residents say was marked by delays, poor organisation and unequal access to help.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends