Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has promised to fight to save “as many people as possible” after the country’s worst earthquake in over a century. The official death toll has nearly doubled, but frustration is growing over what many see as a slow government response.
Rodríguez said on Friday that the official death toll had risen to 589, with nearly 3,000 people injured. Speaking during a visit to La Guaira, the hardest-hit area, she said foreign search and rescue teams were beginning to arrive.
“We offer our solidarity [to the families of victims],” she said late Thursday outside the ruins of an eight-story seaside hotel that was destroyed by two earthquakes—one of magnitude 7.2 and another of 7.5.
Volunteer searchers and relatives of the many missing people expressed frustration and anger at the lack of an official response as they waited for government teams.
Rotny Bombart, a 33-year-old paramedic, said he spent five hours searching for his mother, María Eugenia, in a collapsed tower block in La Guaira called OPP 33. “It has 15 floors. Or rather, it used to, because there’s nothing left of it now,” Bombart said after being treated at a public hospital in the capital, Caracas, for a cut on his right arm he got during the search.
Bombart said no government emergency workers showed up at first. In their absence, desperate locals took matters into their own hands, digging through the rubble with bare hands and basic tools. “You’re prepared for emergencies, but not for this. Nothing prepares you for this,” he said, recalling seeing dismembered bodies, dead people, and children in the wreckage.
Another searcher, Diego González, said he spent hours digging his 34-year-old cousin, Helari Rodríguez, out of the debris of Residencias Belo Horizonte, an apartment building in the seaside town of Catia La Mar.
“It took us four hours to pull her out of the rubble with the help of some friends,” he said. “People are working with their bare hands. Tools are essential. But Catia La Mar is destroyed—very few buildings will have survived.”
On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that on Donald Trump’s orders, he had deployed troops to “support the Venezuelan people” in their time of need. “Our mission is clear: save lives and rapidly deliver critical aid where it is most needed,” Hegseth tweeted.
US Southern Command said Marine Corps Major General Kevin J. Jarrard had landed in Caracas to oversee the use of “the US military’s unparalleled logistical and operational capabilities” to help with the search. Other countries, including Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Spain, France, Turkey, and Switzerland, have offered to send humanitarian aid and rescue teams.
Thirty-six hours after the back-to-back earthquakes devastated Venezuela’s northern coast, there was little sign of government help reaching many areas. This exposed how years of economic mismanagement and corruption have left authorities woefully unprepared for a disaster of this scale.
Chaotic footage from the José María Vargas hospital in La Guaira showed just how much Venezuela’s public health system had deteriorated as Rodríguez’s predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, led the country into economic collapse. Patients could be seen lying on the floor in the hospital’s parking lot, waiting for treatment.
Orlando Pérez, a Latin America expert at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said: “It seems they weren’t prepared at all. Natural disasters reveal the true capabilities of a government.”You have to respond quickly and efficiently. You have to do search and rescue and provide services in tough situations. And it seems the government has been completely caught off guard.
“It’s incredible because this is a resource-rich country,” Pérez added. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but under Maduro, it fell into one of the worst peacetime economic crises in modern history.
[Image: Patients lie outside a hospital evacuated after it was damaged in an earthquake in Catia La Mar. Photograph: Pedro Mattey/AP]
“Yet you have completely run-down health infrastructure, buildings that weren’t built to code and collapsed very easily,” Pérez said. “They had the resources but wasted them. The health infrastructure is especially weak. Hospitals lack equipment and medicine—and that will cost lives.”
Writing on X, Juan Pablo Guanipa, a prominent opposition politician, questioned why Venezuela’s armed forces weren’t doing more to help civilian victims. “So far, we haven’t seen real mobilization or action [from the military] in the face of this serious situation. We’ve seen families, neighbors, and rescue workers trying to save lives with their own hands,” Guanipa said. “Right now, all of us need to be involved, including the armed forces.”
[Image: A volunteer carries a rescued dog across the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty]
Pérez said he was puzzled by reports that there had been little sign of action from Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB).
He said: “What I’m hearing from people is that they haven’t seen large groups of FANB personnel and equipment being mobilized… We know the FANB’s capabilities had been weakened; that it was an armed force set up to prevent a coup. It was top-heavy with many high-ranking officers and not much capability in the middle and lower ranks—and it was involved in illegal activities.”
But even so, Pérez thought the “lack of coordinated response and apparent absence of the FANB” was striking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs based on the headline Interim president promises to save as many people as possible as Venezuelas death toll doubles
General Definition Questions
Q Who is the interim president of Venezuela
A Juan Guaidó He was recognized by many countries as the legitimate interim president after disputed elections in 2018 opposing Nicolás Maduros government
Q What does death toll doubles mean here
A It means the number of reported deaths has increased to twice its previous number
Q What kind of crisis is causing the death toll to rise
A The headline doesnt specify but Venezuela has faced severe crises including economic collapse food and medicine shortages and recent natural disasters or infrastructure failures The context would be in the full article
Benefits Intentions
Q What does save as many people as possible actually mean in practice
A It likely means the interim president is promising to use all available resourcessuch as emergency services international aid or military supportto rescue trapped individuals provide medical care or prevent further deaths
Q Why is the interim president making this promise instead of the current government
A The interim president is often seen as an alternative authority He may be trying to show leadership and respond to a crisis that the Maduro government is unable or unwilling to handle effectively
Common Problems Concerns
Q How can the interim president save people if he doesnt control the military or police
A Thats a key challenge His power is largely symbolic and diplomatic He may rely on international organizations volunteers or local communities to carry out rescue efforts but he has limited direct control
Q Is the death toll accurate
A Probably not fully In Venezuela official data is often questioned The doubling may be based on reports from NGOs hospitals or opposition sources which can be incomplete or disputed
Q Why is the death toll doubling so quickly
