Venezuelans search more earthquake ruins as attention turns to
humanitarian crisis
[June 30, 2026]
By JUAN PABLO ARRAEZ and ISABEL DEBRE
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — With the window for finding survivors
shrinking fast, Venezuelans combed Monday through more ruins of
buildings toppled by last week’s powerful back-to-back earthquakes, and
attention turned to the country's humanitarian crisis that could persist
for years.
Relief organizations say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster is
the most crucial time period for rescues, though survival can be
extended if people have access to food and water. Five days after the
twin quakes, questions loomed about whether the cash-strapped government
will be able to coordinate the effort needed to care for thousands of
people who have been left homeless.
In other developments, a 4.6 magnitude aftershock rumbled through the
disaster zone in the northern state of La Guaira.
The death toll stood at more than 1,700 people, according to the
government, which has long retained tight control over news media.
Venezuelan government promotes its efforts
Facing criticism that authorities have done too little, too slowly,
government officials aggressively promoted their recovery and rescue
efforts. Police and military officers on Monday handed out cans of tuna
and crackers to hungry displaced people in La Guaira.
In a speech, Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of the Venezuelan National
Assembly and brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, said
electricity had been restored to 90% of the hardest-hit state of La
Guaira. He said authorities were racing to evaluate damaged buildings
that still posed a danger and had set up 15 temporary displacement
camps.
Many Venezuelan news reports have avoided politically delicate questions
related to the earthquake, such as the widespread collapse of buildings,
sticking instead to safer stories about heroic rescues. Delcy Rodríguez,
who came to power in January after U.S. President Donald Trump’s
administration seized former President Nicolás Maduro, shared footage
Monday of emergency workers lifting a man out of the ruins to applause
after a 43-hour search effort.
“Each life saved is a victory for hope,” she wrote on X.
Such bright spots are rare at the quake's epicenter, where families keep
vigil at search sites.
“We have to stay strong, even without food, without sleep,” said Ana
Rada, watching as civil defense workers looked for her brother. “Until I
see the body, I still have hope.”
Aftershock rattles rescuers
After what the government said were more than 600 aftershocks since
Wednesday's quakes, a moderate temblor on Monday struck 27 kilometers
(17 miles) north of Caraballeda on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and
measured 4.6 magnitude, according to the United States Geological
Survey.
Jorge Rodríguez said there were no reports of damage, but the shock sent
residents in the capital of Caracas screaming into the streets.
“Here we are again, back in the street. I don’t know when we’ll have a
moment of true peace,” said Concepción Hernández, 51, evacuating her
apartment in the Chacao municipality of Caracas.
Questions over extent of US help
Dozens of countries have offered assistance. But the disaster has raised
expectations for the Trump administration after its takeover of
Venezuela’s oil industry earlier this year.
In a briefing with reporters, a senior State Department official said
300 first responders sent from the U.S. are working on the ground and
two dozen C-17 military transport planes arrive every day with supplies.
Financial support from the U.S. now exceeds $300 million.
The U.S. military is also assisting with repairs at the port in La
Guaira to allow an influx of relief supplies by sea and manage air
traffic after the quakes destroyed part of the control tower at Simón
Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, said the official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
publicly.
It seemed unlikely, however, that the Trump administration would grant
temporary humanitarian protections to Venezuelans as previous
administrations have done for people from disaster-stricken countries
already in the U.S. Such action was taken after earthquakes in 2010 in
Haiti and 2001 in El Salvador.
Venezuelans have been a major focus of the Trump administration’s
immigration crackdown. More than 100 Venezuelans recently deported from
the U.S. were being held at a hotel in the country when the quake hit,
and many are now missing, survivors say.
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Rescue workers search through the rubble of a building that
collapsed when earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, June
28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Rescuers included a miner deported from the US
Among the rescuers digging through the rubble Monday was 31-year-old
miner Jean Sosa, who said he was deported from the U.S. in January
over a missed immigration court hearing and returned to Caracas last
month, dazed by an odyssey that began in shackles at an Arizona
immigration detention center.
He had built a new life in New York City over the past four years,
he said, working at a taco stand near Penn Station, before
Department of Homeland Security officials detained him. They
ultimately shuttled him between immigration detention centers across
the U.S. before leaving him and a busload of other deportees in
southern Mexico without his passport, phone or wallet. He then paid
his way back to Venezuela.
Since arriving Wednesday in La Guaira, Sosa has scrambled to pull
people from the rubble with his old mining pickaxe in the absence of
national rescue teams.
“Many people could have been saved if there had been equipment and
support from top authorities from the very beginning,” he told The
Associated Press, wearing a helmet and a black T-shirt splotched
with dust in the port city where he said he had already rescued 20
people alive.
Those rescues heartened him, he said, despite the lack of supplies.
“We’re working without gloves, without equipment, borrowing
supplies, improvising bandages and whatever else we can.”
The full scale of damage remains unclear
Experts are struggling to assess the scope of damage, but they
generally agree that the government's figures are a vast undercount.
Many Venezuelans are skeptical of official pronouncements,
particularly since Maduro's government claimed victory in the 2024
presidential election despite a vote count showing he had lost to
the opposition movement led by María Corina Machado.
The now-exiled opposition leader has criticized the government
response to the earthquake and on Monday accused it of temporarily
closing the airspace to prevent her from returning to the country.
She did not offer evidence.
Jorge Rodríguez said that as of Monday, the earthquake had affected
a total of 15,866 people. The United Nations, meanwhile, says that
up to 6.8 million of Venezuela’s nearly 30 million residents may be
affected — which could mean being displaced or losing access to
electricity and water. The Venezuelan Red Cross said it expected to
address the needs of at least 300,000 people for the next two years.
While Rodríguez said the number of damaged or collapsed buildings
had reached 855, a preliminary assessment by NASA put that number at
58,870 buildings. The assessment relied on radar imagery from the
European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites, which can detect
changes to infrastructure.
The updates to government figures are given in brief televised
announcements where journalists have no opportunity to ask questions
or request more details. In another obstacle to coverage, the
Venezuelan press union said Monday that the Ministry of
Communication was blocking access to La Guaira for at least some
foreign reporters for 48 hours.
It said the ministry cited the need “to reduce noise during rescue
operations." The union urged the government to drop the restriction:
“As hours pass, the health situation may worsen, and the country
needs verified and timely information.”
Because of the chaos and poor phone service, many Venezuelans have
turned to non-governmental digital databases to report their loved
ones as missing. More than 50,000 people were reported missing on
one such database, though it is unclear how many have been found.
Firefighter Kleider Carrillo said nothing prepared him for the
destruction in La Guaira.
“When you study for this profession, you’re trained for situations
like this," he said. “But what's in textbooks is one thing. Reality
is another.”
___
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press
writers Jorge Rueda and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela,
Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in
Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.
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