THE death toll from Venezuela’s twin earthquakes has risen to 3,535, while nearly 18,000 people have been left without homes more than a week after the disaster struck Caracas and surrounding coastal areas, authorities said.
Top lawmaker Jorge Rodríguez said the latest official figures showed that 16,740 people had been injured and 17,854 people were now homeless following the earthquakes on June 24, which recorded magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 and struck within seconds of each other.
AP reported on Tuesday that the latest figures highlight the scale of devastation across Caracas and La Guaira, the coastal region that suffered the worst impact, as criticism intensifies over the government’s handling of the disaster response.
Venezuela’s social vice presidency said at least 12,800 people were currently staying in 80 emergency shelters across Caracas and La Guaira as displaced families search for safety and support.
The rising death toll comes as survivors continue to recover from one of the country’s deadliest natural disasters in recent years, with many families still searching collapsed buildings for missing relatives.
Noel Márquez, whose family members were trapped when their high-rise building collapsed in La Guaira, said the disaster left him facing the devastating task of recovering loved ones with little assistance.
Márquez was away at his girlfriend’s apartment when the building collapsed and caught fire. He rushed home and called out for his mother, grandparents and siblings buried beneath the ruins.
Only his 17-year-old brother, Leonel, responded.
Trapped beneath heavy concrete columns, Leonel remained alive for hours as Márquez and his father spoke to him through layers of debris, listening as he cried for help and struggled to breathe through thick smoke.
But the crane needed to remove the collapsed columns never arrived.
After several hours, Leonel’s cries stopped, Márquez said.
The family was later forced to recover bodies using basic tools and their own hands. Márquez said he used a saw to free the remains of his brother and mother, while his pregnant sister, grandmother and other relatives remained buried beneath the rubble.
“It’s unfair. It’s inhumane, everything that is happening,” Márquez said from a makeshift morgue at La Guaira port.
“We couldn’t get my brother out because we didn’t get a response from the state ... and after 11 days, we are still requesting a crane.”
Across the disaster zone, residents say they have been left to conduct recovery operations themselves as hopes of finding survivors fade.
Norely Rodríguez, searching through debris for her five-year-old daughter, described the emotional trauma facing families trying to retrieve their loved ones.
“I found her hand, but her torso is crushed,” she said.
“I want to see if I can get her out whole.”
Firefighters said recovery efforts have become increasingly difficult as bodies remain trapped beneath collapsed structures for extended periods.
“It has been difficult because the bodies are already in an advanced state of decomposition, decomposed to such an extent that many times when we try to remove them, they fall apart,” said William Gomez, a firefighter in La Guaira.
Authorities have not released official figures on how many people remain buried under the rubble, although more than 30,000 missing-person reports have reportedly been submitted to a website established by Venezuela’s opposition.
In La Guaira, residents said most rescue and recovery work has been carried out by civilians using their bare hands, pickaxes and shovels, with limited assistance from firefighters and foreign rescue teams.
The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 1.2 million tonnes of debris remain in the worst-affected areas of La Guaira.
“We are the ones helping ourselves: our family. Nobody else helps us except for a few volunteers,” said Yeikhary Urbina, who found the bodies of her mother and brother beneath collapsed concrete.
Frustrated families have begun raising funds themselves to hire heavy machinery, with residents discussing among themselves the cost of renting cranes to continue recovery efforts.
International rescue teams from Italy, Argentina, Spain and other countries have already left Venezuela, while authorities have shifted their focus from rescue operations towards reconstruction and shelter efforts.
The government has launched a rebuilding programme called Venezuela Reborn, with acting President Delcy Rodríguez saying the country was entering a phase of infrastructure and housing recovery.
“Venezuela is entering a process of infrastructure recovery, of housing recovery,” Rodríguez said on state television.
She has rejected accusations that the government responded too slowly and accused critics of spreading misinformation about the disaster response.
However, anger remains high among survivors, particularly residents of collapsed public housing complexes who say they had raised concerns about construction quality and maintenance problems long before the earthquakes.
Alexander, a 42-year-old police officer who lived in one of the destroyed towers, said authorities ignored years of complaints and failed to provide timely rescue assistance.
“Not a single person from the government was here,” he said.
After 11 days of searching, Alexander finally recovered the body of his 12-year-old daughter, who had been trapped beneath the ruins.
“She was waiting for me to pull her out,” he said, holding her body bag in his arms. - July 7, 2026
