Venezuela's government reported 1,943 deaths and more than 10,500 injuries after twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck on June 24, while thousands remain missing and rescue operations continue to falter. The disaster has laid bare the institutional collapse of a regime that's ruled for 27 years, now unable to perform the most basic governmental function: protecting its citizens in crisis.
In La Guaira, survivors described a response that's been slow, disorganized and uneven. Angelica Mundrain has spent six days waiting for heavy machinery to remove the slabs of concrete and twisted metal trapping the bodies of her son, niece and nephew in her flattened beachfront apartment. "We've been abandoned," she said. "We feel helpless. What we have seen is a lack of organization, a lack of empathy, a lack of everything."
Government Dysfunction on Display
The earthquakes exposed the inability of acting President Delcy Rodriguez's administration to carry out basic governmental functions. In the critical 72 hours after residential buildings, food joints, pharmacies, hotels and convenience stores collapsed in La Guaira state, Caracas and surrounding regions, the response focused mainly on directing traffic. Police officers, intelligence agents and members of the armed forces manned intersections while civilians searched for loved ones among piles of rubble.
Ambulances were stuck in miles-long traffic jams. Hospitals were undersupplied and understaffed. Emergency personnel responded with little to no equipment. A week later, many residents in coastal communities of La Guaira said most rescues and recoveries were being carried out by fellow Venezuelans and foreign teams with thermal cameras, sound detectors and trained dogs. Men and women in Venezuelan uniforms stood watching, and state workers took selfies.
Institutional Rot Runs Deep
Tulane University professor David Smilde, who's studied Venezuela for three decades, said the disaster showed that the stunning capture of then-President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces earlier this year wasn't a one-off in which the Venezuelan state was unable to defend itself. "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 poor response to the large number of people who've left the public sector because of extremely low pay and corruption. Many people on the government payroll haven't worked in months or years. A functioning government needs people with specific duties and emergency protocols, including for earthquakes. "It's like trying to have a baseball team with three people on the field," he said. "You're not sure who's going to be the pitcher, who's going to be catching, and who's going to be outfielder."
Privilege and Connections
Wealth and government connections shaped the response, with some sites getting preferential treatment. At one collapsed building where police and military school students were present, people guessed that officials or politically connected people must have lived there. Police officers from a neighboring state were searching for a captain, while the students and a few members of the national guard were hoping to locate a major general. A telescopic crane was parked for several hours at the entrance, and relatives of the well-off families who lived there were able to rent it. Mundrain said she couldn't.
People's anger over the response led to altercations between residents and machine operators. When a government-provided excavator tried to leave the site of a flattened public housing building, people blocked traffic to keep it in place and pulled the operator from the cab.
Electrician Daniel Castillo pulled his mother and son alive from their second-floor apartment in a collapsed public housing building in La Guaira just hours after the earthquake struck. His brother's body remained inside for another day until he could reach him. On Tuesday, while waiting in line for a free bag of hygiene products from a tent staffed by the Venezuelan armed forces, he contrasted members of Venezuela's National Guard with dust-covered civilians and foreign rescuers who'd dug through rubble for days. "You see the guards, and their uniforms are spotless, not dirty at all," he said. "The government did nothing."
Why This Matters:
Venezuela's earthquake response demonstrates what happens when a government prioritizes political control over institutional competence. After 27 years of socialist rule, the state can't execute basic emergency functions that require trained personnel, clear protocols, and accountable leadership. The exodus of qualified workers from the public sector—driven by corruption and wages that don't cover basic needs—has left a hollow bureaucracy where people collect paychecks without performing duties. Meanwhile, preferential treatment for the politically connected while ordinary citizens like Mundrain wait for days reveals a system that's abandoned the principle of equal protection under law. The contrast between idle uniformed officials and desperate civilians digging through rubble with their bare hands shows the human cost of institutional decay. This isn't just a natural disaster. It's a governance disaster that will likely claim more lives than the earthquakes themselves.