One week after earthquakes, Venezuela searches for survivors amid hunger and despair

Volunteers and rescue teams help find survivors in a building that collapsed in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela, on June 30, 2026
MIGUEL MEDINA / POOL / AFP
Almost a week after the earthquakes that left almost 2,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing, Venezuela continues its desperate search for survivors, while trying to help people who lost practically everything in tragedy.
The humanitarian emergency is worsening in the country with the lack of food and shelter for tens of thousands of people on the streets after the double earthquake.
In the state of La Guaira, the most devastated, there is a "generalized" food shortage and basic services have collapsed, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
"Here they provide provisions, but sometimes people even kill themselves for food (...), it looks like a chicken coop (...), yesterday they came to blows, it's crazy," Daniela Armas, 18, told AFP, with her foot stitched and afraid to return to her damaged apartment in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira. AFP
Rescue teams continue to search for survivors. Despite dwindling possibilities, volunteers remember the miraculous rescue, on Tuesday, of a three-year-old boy found alive by Jordanian rescuers under the rubble of a building.
The AFP accompanied American rescuers on Tuesday night in a two-tower housing complex in Catia La Mar. The team left the scene after they were unable to establish the presence of people alive.
One survivor, Andrea Canónico, 23, reported that she managed to survive 48 hours under six meters of rubble because he managed to remain calm. "The main thing is that I never despaired," the young woman told AFP in Los Corales, in the state of La Guaira.
The official death toll rose on Tuesday to 1,943, while the UN estimates that around 50,000 are missing after the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes of June 24, which are among the most violent ever recorded in Latin America.
The government avoids talking about the missing, but states that on the day of the tremors there were around 30 thousand people in La Guaira, of which 6,461 were rescued and more than 13 thousand left on their own or were helped by family and friends. Of the rest, nothing is known.
Members of the 7th French Civil Security Training and Intervention Regiment (RIISC 7) work during a rescue operation in Caraballeda
MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP
Risk of disease
The needs are so great that the UN World Food Program asked the international community for 50 million dollars (R$258.7 million) to feed around 500,000 people for three months.
Before the tragedy, the UN estimated the number of people in need of humanitarian aid in Venezuela at almost 8 million. The United Nations refugee agency has issued a warning about rising tensions due to "limited" access to aid.
The urgency for food and shelter is compounded by the risk of epidemics. The World Health Organization has warned of "extreme pressure" on health services and the risk "of diseases such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough".
"More help would be needed", says Diorjailis Escalona, a 23-year-old doctor, who, despite feeling "devastated", works as a volunteer and is grateful for international support with rescue teams, medicines and food.
The government, for its part, counts around 16 thousand homeless, a very large number. far from the UN estimate of seven million people in this condition.
The port of La Guaira, which had been out of service, as well as Venezuela's main airport, was reactivated by the American marines to speed up the arrival of assistance.
Residents left homeless after the twin earthquakes of June 24 organize their belongings in an improvised camp on a baseball field in Catia La Mar
FEDERICO PARRA / AFP
Search harrowing
The government militarized La Guaira and started to require authorization to allow access to the disaster area.
In total, 27 countries mobilized around 40 search and rescue teams, which on Tuesday continued excavating between piles of iron and concrete.
There are more than 2 thousand agents and professionals, in addition to more than 160 dogs, according to the UN, which announced that it will provide 10 thousand body bags, although it expects the balance end is inferior.
Part of Soraida Torrealba's family searches among the rubble of her building in La Guaira. "I feel like my hands are tied because I can't find her, I don't know anything about her", laments her sister, Rosanna Luna, 44 years old.
Photos of children, elderly people and couples, accompanied by their names, descriptions and a telephone number to receive information, flood social media.
NASA, the American space agency, estimates that 58 thousand buildings were damaged or destroyed. And the UN estimates material damage of 6.7 billion dollars (R$ 34.7 billion), equivalent to 6% of the oil country's GDP.
Amid the devastation, homeless people like Juan Cordero, an amateur football coach, encouraged a group of children to play in an improvised camp in Catia La Mar.
Volunteers and rescue teams help find survivors in a building that collapsed in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela
MIGUEL MEDINA / POOL / AFP

Source: G1