Venezuela’s twin earthquakes have killed 3,811 people, according to figures released by National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez on Wednesday. Reuters said the latest tally put the number of injured from the June 24 quakes at 16,740 and the number of homeless at 17,907. The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez said about 18,000 people were left without a home, while officials said 190 buildings collapsed and 856 others were damaged. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around $37 billion.
Who Pays When the Ground Breaks
The numbers tell the story before any speech does. People at the bottom are counting bodies, injuries, and ruined homes while institutions count damage in billions and talk about reconstruction like it’s a ledger problem. The quakes hit on June 24, and 16 days later the toll still kept climbing through official channels and wire reports.
Relief services in the hardest-hit areas of La Guaira were flooded by victims of the earthquakes and people spared by the destruction. Mobile kitchens, clinics and field hospitals have been set up in public spaces, and nongovernmental organizations are delivering much of the aid. That’s the immediate reality on the ground: public spaces turned into emergency sites, with survival organized around makeshift care and outside groups filling gaps left by the state apparatus.
Aid, But Through the Gatekeepers
United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher said the U.N. had launched an appeal for roughly $300 million to assist 1.3 million people in urgent need of aid. He said, "It is clear at displacement sites that, particularly after two weeks, that people are turning up because they haven’t been able to get their other treatments," and added, "So, they’re not turning up with just the fractures now, they’re turning up with those longer-term health needs. And it’s vital that we’re there for them." Fletcher also said the United States had so far provided most of the earthquake-response aid.
That’s the hierarchy in plain sight. People need treatment, food, and shelter now, but the flow of help still runs through institutions, appeals, and sanctioned channels. The U.N. asks for $300 million. The U.S. gets credit for most of the response aid. Meanwhile, the displaced keep showing up with injuries that don’t stop at broken bones.
AP reported that chronic illness and diarrhea surged in quake-hit Venezuelan communities as humanitarian needs deepened. Doctors in Catia La Mar reported more skin conditions and diarrheal diseases, along with more requests for medication for chronic illnesses including diabetes and high blood pressure. The emerging diseases were tied to crowded living spaces and poor water and sanitation conditions, which in many communities predated the earthquakes. The disaster didn’t create every wound. It exposed the ones already baked into daily life.
Irma Echarri, 67, went to a mobile unit with boxes of eyedrops and pain reliever she usually takes, hoping for replacements and treatment for pain in her nose after the June 24 earthquakes. She said, "It hurts a lot," and, "It hurts because it hurts." Zulbey Reyes, 41, went to a clinic run by the Venezuela-based organization Paluz in partnership with the International Rescue Committee after the earthquakes robbed her of her job as a nanny. She sought treatment for chest pain and said, "I thought it was my heart that was sick," and, "But it’s a nerve that became inflamed after the screams that day."
The Relief Machine and the State’s Memory
Armando Denegri, representative in Venezuela of the Pan-American Health Organization, said "50% of the health professionals in La Guaira were directly affected" by the earthquakes, adding, "Some disappeared, some died, others were severely affected by the crisis, impacting their families," without giving further details. The widespread presence of nongovernmental organizations and the freedom with which the government is allowing them to operate contrasts with the repression they faced in recent years, when organizations were repeatedly accused of anti-government activities and the U.N. local human rights office was expelled.
That contrast matters. The same system that once treated independent aid groups as enemies now needs them in public view. The state didn’t suddenly discover generosity. It discovered necessity.
Reuters also reported that the U.S. authorized for four months transactions related to earthquake relief that would otherwise have been banned by sanctions. Delcy Rodríguez renewed calls for international sanctions on Venezuela to be lifted and said the country had enough overseas assets to help finance reconstruction if blocked accounts were released. She said on state television channel VTV, "Venezuela has resources blocked around the world that could address this process of reconstruction," and said funds were also needed for employment and education programs. She said she had sent a letter to King Charles requesting the release of Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England and had spoken with the head of the International Monetary Fund about releasing funds.
The Bank of England has refused to release some 31 tons of Venezuelan gold held in its vaults, and the bullion has been the subject of a long-running legal battle in British courts. Reuters said the U.S., the European Union and other countries imposed increasingly stringent sanctions on Venezuela over the last two decades over allegations of anti-democratic activity and that the country is a haven for drug trafficking. It said many of the measures remain in place, though after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro early this year, Washington provided targeted relief to the country’s oil sector.
Venezuela is also pushing a swift debt deal after the quakes, with claims approaching $200 billion and fears of a future crisis. The report said the country is pursuing a rapid and complex debt restructuring and that the push has raised concerns about future financial stability. The bills keep coming. The dead don’t get a vote in any of it.