Regina Garcia Cano, Juan Pablo Arraez And Megan Janetski
June 28, 2026 โ 4:34 am
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La Guaira: Tensions escalated Saturday as desperation grew among suffering residents in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira, where rescuers and civilians searched for survivors of the earthquake amid a soaring death toll.
The Venezuelan government said the death toll rose to 1,430 local time on Saturday (Sunday AEST) and families reported at least 68,900 people missing, three days after twin earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 devastated the South American country.
Rescuers clear the rubble three days later.AP Photo/Fernando Vergara
The number of victims of the disaster continues to grow.AP Photo/Mathias Delacroix
Venezuelans searching for loved ones and neighbors used shovels, heavy equipment, ropes and bare hands on mounds of collapsed concrete across La Guaira, one of the countryโs hardest-hit states.
Most of those digging were civilians who took the search effort into their own hands, and tensions reached a fever pitch due to an inadequate response from the Venezuelan government; soldiers, firefighters, police officers and military cadets were apparently ill-prepared to respond to the tragedy.
The disappointment was only compounded by the stateโs efforts to project the image of a decisive state response.
โThereโs a pile of bodies from last night. Newborn babies. Look what time it is and they still havenโt come to pick them up. At 8 p.m. there were living people there and they didnโt bother to save them. We found some bodies and they didnโt help us find them either,โ said Mileidy Romero, who was among those searching through the rubble in the seaside town of Caraballeada. -What are they waiting for?
Destroyed buildings in La Guaira on Saturday, three days after the earthquake.AP Photo/Mathias Delacroix
Aid agencies believe the first 48 to 72 hours are critical to getting people back alive, although this can be extended if they have access to food and water.
However, nearly 72 hours after the earthquake, a growing number of international rescue teams have joined efforts to save lives.
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Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on state television Saturday that more than 14,000 troops and police were patrolling the area, which is now off-limits and requires special permits to enter. Additional rescue teams sent by governments around the world arrived in Venezuela on Saturday.
Simon Bolivar International Airport, serving the Venezuelan capital Caracas, was heavily damaged by the earthquake. One runway remained open Saturday as U.S. crews worked to repair the critical runway, Jeremy Levin, the senior State Department official in charge of foreign aid, told reporters.
Search teams and foreign aid from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, El Salvador, France, El Salvador and other countries continued to arrive in Venezuela Saturday morning to support recovery efforts.
Levin, the State Department spokesman, said the U.S. military would help coordinate flights to deliver search and rescue workers, mobile hospitals and supplies. He said two search teams of 80 people were working and a U.S. Navy transport ship was moored off the coast of Venezuela ready to receive airlifted survivors in need of medical attention. Levin said itโs a โrace against timeโ to find people injured in the earthquakes.
โPeople are trapped under the rubble and the priority is to get search and rescue teams, medical workers and other specialists to them as quickly as possible to save lives,โ he said.
In the town of Maiquetia, people lined up outside the shops and pharmacies that served them, one after another behind closed doors. At one point, a woman in the crowd threw herself on the ground to protect a package of diapers with her body, desperately trying to save it.
Traffic jams and crowds of motorcyclists at times hampered search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly asked for silence as they listened for signs of life under the rubble, but the bikers โ civilian and in uniform โ continued to honk their horns and rev their engines, to the frustration of first responders.
Volunteers categorize donations at the collection center.Getty Images
Some people have begun removing basic goods such as toilet paper and food from shops in Catia La Mar, adjacent to the countryโs main airport. Others attacked a civilian pickup truck distributing bread and water until a soldier intervened. The pharmacyโs parking lot has been turned into a temporary shelter with tarps, hammocks and tents.
A few kilometers away, 28-year-old Yuleidi Cadenas stood across the street from a collapsed public housing building, hoping her son, mother and brother would be pulled out alive.
She escaped barefoot from another building that collapsed on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) to find her motherโs 12-storey apartment tower had collapsed.
Another point of view
โI climbed into the rubble and told them to scream back, but no one did โ not my brother, not my son, not my mother,โ Cadenas said.
AP
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