Five reported as "dead" appeared refueling vehicles, says Rodríguez

The interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, reported on Thursday night (2) that there are no plans for mass graves for the victims of the earthquakes that hit the country on June 24, while thousands of people remain missing after the disaster. According to Rodríguez, to date, 2,595 deaths have been recorded due to the tremors.

"The number we released is a rigorously verified number," Rodríguez said during the press conference, adding that 12,400 people were injured.

The leader stated that the updated data is the result of a detailed verification process and that the authorities cross-checked information about the victims before releasing the most recent balance.

According to Rodríguez, five people initially recorded as dead were later found alive, after authorities confirmed their identities through the Venezuelan fuel subsidy system, based on fingerprint identification.

"Five people who had been registered as dead refueled vehicles after the incident, that is, they were not dead [...] therefore, we do not want to publish numbers that are not rigorously proven", said the interim president.

Rodríguez hits back at criticism
Rodríguez rejected claims that the government's response to the country's June 24 earthquakes was slow.

"Our authorities mobilized immediately. It is possible to count the hours from the moment the double earthquake hit the country to the moment the General Staff was activated and the deployment of our police and military began, reaching 4,000 agents in the first 24 hours", he stated at a press conference.

"It was a natural tragedy on a scale that we never imagined, although we knew that a seismic event could occur in our country," he said.

"We don't wait one, two or three days. We act immediately", he added.

Rodríguez said his government issued an emergency decree to activate civil protection and emergency protocols within hours of the tremors. She also said that almost all of the regional authorities in La Guaira - the hardest-hit coastal state - died in buildings that were reduced to rubble.

*with information from CNN and Reuters

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Source: CNN