It is at least 235 dead and 4,300 injured the latest death toll from the earthquake that hit Venezuela. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Carlos Alvarado. Over 50 thousand people are missing, as reported by the Venezuelan website dedicated to missing persons. The site allows people to share details and the latest location of their loved ones, in the hope of contributing to search and rescue operations across the country. A newborn baby was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira. A woman was also rescued in Chacao, 24 after violent tremors with a magnitude greater than 7.
Venezuela is a country on its knees, wounded to the heart by a very violent earthquake that hit the capital Caracas, but above all the coastal area of the state of La Guaira, where it may have caused a massacre with thousands of deaths. According to the latest estimates, around 40 thousand people are still missing.
In the evening, the Farnesina received confirmation of the death of an Italian-Venezuelan citizen, born in Caracas in 1970, with relatives in Italy, involved in the collapse of a building, right in La Guaira. “We are recording many reports of people who do not respond”, including “several Italians on whom checks are requested”, explained the head of the Farnesina Crisis Unit, Nicola Minardi.
The inhabited centers, at dawn, a few hours after the disaster, look like war zones after a bombing. Dozens and dozens of buildings are demolished, reduced to dust, others are gutted and folded in on themselves. The fires caused by the gas leaks are being put out, but people are still on the streets, crying, with nothing left, in shock, looking for their loved ones, in the midst of mountains of rubble.
Testimonies from the disaster sites
“Everything was falling on us. The televisions were on the ground. It looked like a horror film. It lasted a long time, about two minutes”, a resident of one of the areas west of Caracas, among the most affected, told the local press. “The roar was terrifying,” added a neighbor. Now the primary objective is to get relief and aid to arrive as soon as possible, but it is not an easy task: many bridges are damaged, the seriously damaged airport is still closed and communications are collapsing.
The international aid machine kicks in
However, we dig non-stop. The interim president Delcy Rodriguez, visibly emotional, declared a state of emergency live on TV, announced the closure of schools and courts, calling for calm and appealing for national unity. All doctors and nurses in the country were also co-opted. In a few hours, international solidarity was triggered: tons of aid arrived from neighboring countries and rescue teams from around the world, from the USA to the European Union, which triggered the Civil Protection mechanism, while the IMF allocated 200 million for reconstruction. Sending men also from Turkey to Mexico, countries that know similar catastrophes well: everyone is engaged in a race against time to save more people, still under the rubble.
The two shocks and the epicenter
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the first shock was of magnitude 7.1, followed shortly afterwards by a second, even stronger, of magnitude 7.5. The epicenter of the most violent tremor would have been identified 23 kilometers south-east of Yumare, a town of around 20 thousand inhabitants near the coast, about 300 kilometers west of Caracas. The reduced depth of the epicentre, around 10 kilometres, and the widespread absence of anti-seismic criteria in buildings would have contributed to making the consequences more serious. It would have been the most violent earthquake in Venezuela in the last 126 years, felt up to over 160 kilometers away, on the border with Colombia.
The state of emergency
The interim president Delcy Rodríguez, who appeared visibly exhausted in a speech on public television, announced the state of emergency and launched an appeal for national unity: “The situation is serious, many areas have been seriously affected.” The most affected state would be La Guaira, but according to the authorities there would also be victims in other cities and villages.
Damage to the airport and communications down
The Simón Bolívar international airport in Maiquetía, the country’s main airport, about twenty kilometers from Caracas, was seriously damaged, suspending flights: in some areas the false ceiling apparently collapsed, with scenes of panic among passengers during the evacuation. In the following minutes, telephone communications were interrupted, also under pressure from calls from the millions of Venezuelans abroad seeking news of their family members; in many areas we communicate only via messaging. For safety reasons, gas supply was also suspended.
The USGS alert and the tsunami danger averted
The preliminary USGS estimates, based on automatic models and not on an official count, hypothesize a potentially very heavy toll: the agency indicates a 44% probability of over 10,000 victims and 30% of over 100,000, with significant risk of landslides and liquefaction of the ground. For this reason, an orange alert has been activated. The US centers have instead revoked the tsunami warning, initially issued for the coasts within 300 kilometers of the epicenter and for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Tajani assures support for Caracas. 100 thousand victims are feared
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani assured the Caracas government of every type of support. We are preparing to send men from the Fire Brigade and Civil Protection on board Air Force planes. Meanwhile, the Farnesina has been monitoring the conditions of the large Italian-Venezuelan community and compatriots present in the country for hours.
The fear is that the two tremors caused a real massacre. The figure that creates profound anguish is that of the missing which is constantly growing, first 10 thousand, now around 40 thousand people have seemed to have traces of them.
The fear that grips everyone is that in the end the number of deaths will approach, like a nightmare, the estimate made quickly by the US Geological Survey, of 1000 to 100 thousand victims. The images taken by some fishermen on board their small boat while they were a few miles from land are impressive: first the sea suddenly ripples, with increasingly higher waves. Immediately afterwards, on the horizon, along the coast, tall columns of white smoke. They were the buildings that were collapsing in sequence, like playing cards, one on top of the other.
Piedmont sends healthcare personnel
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the death of an Italian-Venezuelan citizen, born in Caracas in 1970, with relatives in Italy. This was reported by Farnesina sources. The compatriot was involved in the collapse of a building in La Guaira, 30 kilometers from Caracas, one of the areas most affected by the earthquake. The Piedmont Region is making its contribution to the rescue operations in Venezuela, hit by two violent earthquakes which caused victims, injuries and extensive damage to infrastructure. As part of the national coordination ensured by Cross on behalf of the Department of Civil Protection, a first team made up of two doctors and a nurse has already started together with the Usar (Urban Search and Rescue) mission of the National Fire Brigade, engaged in search and rescue activities. The departure of a second contingent consisting of five nurses and a doctor is also expected, intended to directly support Venezuelan healthcare facilities in managing the emergency. «Once again – states governor Alberto Cirio, with the councilors for Health Federico Riboldi and Civil Protection Marco Gabusi – Piedmont is ready to bring help and medical and health professionalism in difficult contexts, within international missions with the Maxiemergency 118 Structure and in coordination with the national structures. We did it in Turkey, on the occasion of the 2023 earthquake, building the Antioch field hospital in record time, and we do it every time an emergency occurs and the help of our doctors and nurses is requested. We are also making the skills and experience of our Civil Protection available now, which is always on the front line wherever rescue and help is needed in the world.”