With tens of thousands still missing, time is running out for rescuers in Venezuela. Venezuelan officials have said 1,719 people are now confirmed to have died in the country's twin earthquakes, with more than 5,000 injured and many more left homeless.
A 21-year-old man was pulled out Monday morning after being trapped for more than 100 hours.
Aid is continuing to arrive from around the world, but there's growing public anger at the government's response to the disaster.
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Two earthquakes in Venezuela have caused catastrophic damage, leaving over 1,500 dead and tens of thousands missing. Beyond the immediate humanitarian crisis, the disaster has exposed severe infrastructure failures, government corruption in housing projects, and deep political instability, fueling public anger toward the interim administration during a period of high tension.
There were two earthquakes on Wednesday, but they exposed hundreds of fault lines
in Venezuela's infrastructure, in the way some of its homes are built and in its politics.
But first, the ongoing human aftershock. Rescue workers talk of a 96-hour window
after an earthquake to find the most survivors that ended last night.
Miraculously, the window remained ajar for some.
This man rescued from a would-be tomb yesterday, surrounded by uniforms from all over the world.
24 countries have said teams, including the UK and the US.
The problem with miracles, though, most people don't experience them.
And frustration with the initial state response is building.
In the worst affected area, La Guaira,
residents tried to divert rescue equipment to the buildings where their loved ones were trapped.
This man says he'd managed to pull his daughter halfway out of the rubble,
but then she became stuck.
Or take this volunteer rescue worker who confronted soldiers
for bringing shotguns, not shovels.
What did you bring weapons for? You should have brought a shovel, a pickaxe.
That uniform is to defend the homeland, to defend a country.
The country is this. This is the country, which needs you, not a weapon.
The recorded death toll will soon surpass 1,500.
But those reported missing underneath the rubble and the sun is in the tens of thousands.
Health charities on the ground have told us that you can smell the decay on the ruined streets,
and that one of their main concerns now is the spread of disease.
You smell it already. You start to smell it in La Guaira,
where in Catia Lamar, which are the two most hit zones,
and this is a big risk of disease outbreaks.
Wednesday's geological wrecking ball exposed more than just structural vulnerabilities.
As well as disquiet around the government's immediate response,
the earthquakes have people asking serious questions
about shoddily built government housing projects like these
under contracts that were at best opaque, at worst corrupt.
The interim president, Delsi Rodriguez, was already unpopular according to polling.
These coming weeks could make or break Donald Trump's anointed one.
Venezuelans voted en masse for the opposition candidate in 2024.
Over 60% of Venezuelans rejected, close to 70% rejected the incumbent government.
Now they're going to have a lot more to complain about, quite frankly,
because they're already seeing the slow response,
you know, the deaths that are probably attributable to their
lack of investment in infrastructure and capacity to respond.
Now they're going to have something to be very upset about.
In the 70s and 80s, earthquakes in Nicaragua and Mexico sparked political upheaval.
Caracas and Washington now wait to see whether or not
what happens here will register on the political Richter scale.
