After two powerful earthquakes in Venezuela, the official death toll exceeds 1,700, but civil society data suggests nearly 40,000 people are missing. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes last Wednesday devastated towns along Venezuela's Caribbean coast. The port city of La Guaira was hardest hit: roads cracked open, homes destroyed. Video by fishermen shows plumes of dust where buildings once stood, the camera rising and falling with the swell.
On Monday, 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas was rescued after 106 hours trapped under rubble. But hope is fading. Venezuela was already fragile due to economic crisis, corruption, and the capture of former dictator Nicolás Maduro by US forces earlier this year.
According to Venezuelan journalist Clavel Rangel, who reported on the earthquake for the Guardian, official statistics cannot be trusted. "Over the past 10 to 15 years, opacity has been the rule in this country. In civil society databases, family members have reported more than 40,000 people missing so far," she says.
Mortuaries are overwhelmed: bodies arrive in car trunks, pickup trucks, and motorcycles. The UN is trying to source 10,000 body bags. Civil society groups have created websites to help find missing people.
The aftermath highlighted the absurdities of Venezuela's current regime. Heavily armed military police in balaclavas patrolled the worst-hit areas. Under Maduro, these same forces kidnapped regime opponents. "The military police have been very successful at repressing people fighting for democracy, but we have not seen the same effort trying to save people under the rubble," says Clavel.
Clavel herself was with her family during the quake. She had returned to Venezuela after six years to surprise her parents. When the shaking began, they huddled under an arch in the kitchen. "We thought we were going to die," she says. Fortunately, they survived.