Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has defended her country’s emergency response to the twin earthquakes that have killed more than 3,000 people. Rodríguez vowed that the country would not descend into social unrest, saying, ‘There will be no social unrest here – what we have here is deep social solidarity.’ Thousands of public officials and rescue teams have been sent to help dig out victims and find survivors. However, many Venezuelans have expressed anger at what they see as the US-backed government’s inadequate response to the disaster before international teams arrived.
The number of people killed in the quakes has risen to 3,342, while the number of people injured has passed 16,700. The shocks collapsed scores of buildings, leaving thousands homeless, especially in the coastal La Guaira area north of the capital, Caracas. International rescue teams are wrapping up operations to find more survivors, while families are still trying to dig out bodies of loved ones from the wreckage.
Forensic technicians are working to identify bodies, but many fear that mass graves will have to be created due to the large number of dead. The collapse is massive, and the bodies are buried under many layers of debris. Forensic technician Joel Mirabal estimates that it will take up to three months to collect all the bodies.
The disaster has also highlighted the economic struggles of many Venezuelans, who are unable to afford the cost of funerals. Rosa López’s 25-year-old son-in-law, José Antonio Toledo, was found under the building where he was working as a security guard when the quakes struck. The family was unable to afford the $450 cost of a funeral, and it wasn’t until the mayor’s office offered them a free space at a local cemetery that they were able to bury him.
