Venezuelans desperate to find loved ones are taking rescue efforts into their own hands as the critical window to save lives narrows, with survivors reporting a scarcity of government rescuers in the hardest-hit areas despite official promises of a robust response. The twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 that struck Wednesday have claimed at least 920 lives, left more than 51,000 missing and injured more than 3,300 as of midday Friday, according to authorities.
Civilians Lead Search as Hours Slip Away
In La Guaira, just north of Caracas and the epicenter of the destruction, Nazareth Jiménez sobbed into a loved one's shoulder as neighbors used hammers and power tools to try to cut through slabs of concrete in a building reduced to a mountain of debris. She was waiting to see if her siblings, nephews, nieces and friends would emerge alive. "My God, how are we going to get them out of there?" Jiménez said. "We're making a call for help to the government and countries across the world," she said, pleading for machinery capable of moving collapsed structures. "There are still people alive in there."
People reported seeing few state rescue teams in the hardest-hit areas, despite authorities projecting a robust government response. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours a crucial time frame to retrieve people alive, though that can be extended if they have access to food and water. Authorities said they had rescued 243 people as of midday Friday.
Access Restrictions Amid Chaos
Authorities announced Friday night that they would block access to La Guaira because chaos and traffic were hampering search efforts. Anyone who wants to enter must now seek official permits, though officials gave few details about who would be allowed in. More than 14,000 members of the military and police were patrolling the area, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television Saturday.
The disaster posed a challenge for Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the capture and removal of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been facing economic disarray for more than a decade, and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement Rodríguez represents.
Human Toll Mounts
Omar Reyes said around 20 family members died. "I've been left alone in this life," Reyes said, walking through the rubble where two of his children were buried. In Maiquetia, a woman in a crowd threw herself to the ground to protect a package of diapers with her body as people lined up outside stores and pharmacies that served them one by one behind closed doors.
Yuleidy Cadenas, 28, stood across the street from a collapsed public housing building, hoping her son, mother and brother would be pulled out alive. She fled barefoot from another building as it collapsed Wednesday and found her mother's 12-floor apartment tower had pancaked. "I got on top of the rubble and told them to yell back, and nobody did, not my brother, nor my son or my mother," Cadenas said.
The number of dead was expected to climb, and people reported tens of thousands of missing on independent digital databases. Those figures likely included people who had been incommunicado because of the lack of cellphone signals, and some reports may have been duplicates. The International Organization for Migration said up to 6.76 million people could be affected, including some 2 million in Caracas alone.
International Response
Venezuelan authorities said Friday that 861 volunteers from Mexico, the U.S., El Salvador, Switzerland, Colombia and beyond were in the country, and more were coming from elsewhere. Acting President Rodríguez said she spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday and they reaffirmed their commitment to send rescue teams and aid equipment.
Government forces distributed food and water to survivors in La Guaira, and Rodríguez said her government was mounting a full response during these "critical hours for rescuing people alive." Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, said, "Each person saved is a miracle," and, "We are not going to hide absolutely anything about the magnitude of this tragedy."
The destruction was amplified by the quick succession of shallow quakes, experts said. Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross' regional director for the Americas, said, "people are still terrified to reenter what were their homes." Many continued to sleep on the street. The parking lot of a pharmacy turned into a makeshift shelter with tarps, hammocks and tents.
Some people began to carry off basic goods such as toilet paper and food from stores in Catia La Mar, adjacent to the country's main airport. Others swarmed a civilian pickup truck that was giving out bread and water, until a soldier intervened. Traffic and throngs of motorcyclists at times disrupted search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly asked for silence to try to hear signs of life under the rubble, but bikers, civilian and uniformed, continued to honk horns and rev engines to the first responders' frustration.
Why This Matters:
The Venezuelan earthquake disaster reveals how vulnerable populations bear the heaviest burden when institutional capacity fails during crises. With more than 51,000 people missing and survivors forced to conduct their own rescue operations using basic tools, the human cost reflects both the immediate devastation and the underlying challenge of a government facing legitimacy questions and economic disarray for more than a decade. The International Organization for Migration's estimate that up to 6.76 million people could be affected underscores the scale of need for coordinated international humanitarian response and the importance of multilateral cooperation in disaster relief. As the critical rescue window closes, the experiences of families like Omar Reyes, who lost around 20 relatives, and Yuleidy Cadenas, desperately hoping to find her son, mother and brother alive, illustrate why robust public institutions and emergency preparedness systems are essential to protect human life and dignity in the face of natural disasters.