Aid groups warn Venezuela’s healthcare system is near its limit after
earthquakes
[July 01, 2026]
By JUAN PABLO ARRÁEZ and ISABEL DEBRE
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela's
fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week
after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals
getting overwhelmed by the injured and infectious diseases flaring in
the disaster zone.
Meanwhile, the number of official rescues has dropped dramatically in
the last three days, the government said, from 5,380 people saved in the
first two days after the quakes to just four people found alive Monday
by authorities. The prime window for finding earthquake survivors is
typically 48 to 72 hours, but it is possible to survive longer depending
on factors such as temperature and access to water or food.
The sole survivor rescued by Tuesday afternoon was a toddler who had
been trapped for six days under a collapsed building, said Jorge
Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly.
Those numbers do not include the many rescues carried out across the
country by volunteer groups that, frustrated with the government's
sluggish response, scrambled to save their trapped loved ones days
before the arrival of expert international teams.
The government puts the death toll at over 1,900. Experts say that is a
significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every
day and morgues struggle to handle the influx.
Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. United Nations
agencies estimated on Tuesday that the earthquake amassed 1.2 million
tons of debris of destroyed buildings and belongings. They expressed
concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people
sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.
A healthcare system in crisis
The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underinvestment
and years of economic crisis is “under extreme pressure now, with
facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma
cases,” said World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier
at a media briefing in Geneva.
Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected
by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of
displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said
Tuesday. Newly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and
elsewhere.
Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in
the hardest-hit state of La Guaira, just outside the capital of Caracas
along the coast, are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said.
Without access to toilets, showers or soap, displaced Venezuelans have
also become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable
diseases like measles, given the population’s low vaccination rates,
Lindmeier said, adding that conditions are ripe for waterborne
infections such as dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread.
According to the government, last week's earthquakes damaged or
otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has
evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer
operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now
buckling under the influx of injuries.
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Ogleisys Cisneros holds her son, Santiago Medina, while waiting in
line for government humanitarian aid, days after an earthquake
struck in La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias
Delacroix)
Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including
officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said,
compounding the challenges to healthcare in a country that 8 million
people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent
years.
“Findings reveal chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked
by overcrowding, growing surgical backlogs ... and a breakdown in
biosafety measures,” Lindmeier said.
An increased presence of nongovernmental organizations was
noticeable Tuesday in La Guaira and adjacent communities, with tents
from the Red Cross, the World Food Program and other organizations
set up on sidewalks, waterfront esplanades and athletic facilities.
People lined up throughout the day under the blistering sun to
receive free toiletries, food, medications and face masks.
A struggle to grasp the true toll
With the government tight-lipped about victims and survivors and
offering no official count of missing people, ordinary Venezuelans
are struggling to find relatives. Many have turned to WhatsApp
groups and nongovernmental digital databases to report their loved
ones as missing. One such registry listed at least 43,220 people as
missing.
In his daily televised casualty update, Jorge Rodríguez, brother of
interim President Delcy Rodríguez, said that the official toll stood
at 1,943 people killed and 10,571 injured as of Tuesday, urging the
public to share only government information.
But his numbers left thousands of Venezuelans unaccounted for. He
said the government estimated there were around 30,000 people in the
hardest-hit parts of La Guaira state at the time of the earthquake,
and that around 20,000 of them managed to escape the area or were
later rescued.
NASA estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or
destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people
affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. The U.N.
children’s agency, UNICEF, on Tuesday said 680,000 children are in
need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.
___
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press
writers Regina Garcia Cano and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela,
Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, contributed to this report.
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