Twin Quakes Hit Venezuela: Nearly 1500 Dead, Thousands Missing

Foreign rescue teams deployed in large numbers across Venezuela on Sunday, racing against time to extract survivors from the rubble of two massive earthquakes that struck the country earlier this week, leaving nearly 1,500 people dead.

The twin earthquakes, which struck on Wednesday, severely impacted the coastal state of La Guaira, located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the capital city, Caracas. The disasters completely leveled dozens of structures, reducing them to piles of sand and concrete debris in a nation already grappling with a severe, prolonged political and economic crisis.

"Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing. Today, we have recovered people alive, and therefore, operations are not being suspended. We always maintain hope," said interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Sunday, following the establishment of a presidential commission tasked with evaluating the structural safety of remaining buildings.

Accompanied by several cabinet ministers, Rodriguez announced that school closures would be extended for another week. She also noted that electricity had been restored to 75% of La Guaira.

The current administration, led by Rodriguez since her predecessor was removed following a U.S. raid in January, initially expressed gratitude to civilian volunteers delivering aid. However, authorities later restricted access to the main transit routes into La Guaira, citing heavy civilian traffic that was impeding emergency vehicles.

Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the National Assembly and brother of the interim president, reported that the death toll rose by 20 on Sunday, reaching 1,450 fatalities. He added that 3,150 people were injured, 12,721 had been displaced, and 774 buildings had completely collapsed.

"We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes... can stay," he stated.

Prior to the arrival of more than 2,600 international rescue personnel, local families and volunteers spent days searching through debris with minimal heavy machinery, amid complaints of a sparse government presence. A continuous wave of hundreds of aftershocks has exacerbated structural damage and kept local populations on edge.

Government data indicates that at least 33 individuals, including multiple children, had been successfully rescued as of Saturday evening. On Sunday, rescue workers achieved another breakthrough, pulling a father and his son alive from a collapsed building.

Discrepancies remain regarding the total number of missing individuals. While official government tallies place the missing and trapped in the hundreds, an online tracking database managed by the political opposition listed just under 50,000 people as unaccounted for on Sunday—a minor decrease from the 55,000 reported the previous day.