Under mounting scrutiny over how Venezuela handled one of its deadliest disasters in recent memory, Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has pushed back against accusations that her government moved too slowly after two earthquakes killed more than 2,000 people.
Since the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes struck last week, civilians – among them survivors, grieving relatives, volunteer paramedics and overseas rescue crews – have poured into the disaster zone, particularly La Guaira, the northern state hit hardest by the twin shocks.
Many of those clawing through wreckage, along with international aid groups, say the official response was sluggish and inadequate. They describe delays in food and medical deliveries and say a shortage of heavy equipment has hampered efforts to clear debris while the search for survivors continues.
“It was a natural tragedy on a scale we never imagined, even though we knew that a seismic event could occur in our country,” Ms Rodriguez said at her first press conference since taking power in January, after the US ousted her predecessor Nicolas Maduro.
She said 4,000 officials were sent out immediately, a figure that rose to 14,000 the following day and has since climbed to 19,000. She also said she signed an emergency decree to trigger national response protocols.
“We’ve done everything in our power, and we’ll continue to do everything in our power and more,” she said, adding that she had visited children in hospitals who had lost limbs and were grieving relatives.
“I’ve had to go through some very painful experiences,” Ms Rodriguez said.
An multi-storey building destroyed following the earthquakes
Civilian-led response
State television has frequently broadcast images of Ms Rodriguez in meetings with military and security leaders, while soldiers and police have manned major roads in La Guaira and, at times, managed traffic.
Even so, according to Reuters witnesses, civilians – many of them volunteers – have driven much of the relief effort on the ground.
For days, people have tried to reach trapped loved ones using their bare hands, shovels and pickaxes, working alongside firefighters, civil protection units, foreign rescue crews, student doctors and nurses, teachers, veterinarians and, from time to time, a soldier.
At the site of six collapsed towers in a large public housing complex in La Guaira, soldiers who had spent days working beside civilians told Reuters they were there as volunteers.
Ms Rodriguez said the death toll had risen to 2,595 and that the government was still continuing search-and-rescue operations.
She did not provide a figure for those still missing. An unofficial but widely followed online list had fallen to about 38,500 by yesterday evening, after reaching nearly 60,000 in the immediate aftermath of the quakes.
A United Nations envoy said this week that 10,000 body bags were being procured for Venezuela, while the US Geological Survey has estimated that more than 10,000 deaths could be possible.
Ms Rodriguez also lashed out at what she called “media laboratories,” accusing them of manufacturing an image of chaos for political ends.
“The first media narrative developed in these media labs was: ‘everyone head to La Guaira,’ to create chaos and impede search-and-rescue operations,” she said, without explanation.
Rodriguez said the IMF and World Bank had offered assistance and credit for recovery. Venezuela, she said, was establishing a $200 million reconstruction fund with the IMF, with money to be directed to audited contractors to rebuild homes.
Rescues ongoing
In the first days after the twin tremors, much of the water, food and other essentials reaching La Guaira was carried in by thousands of civilians, many of them on motorcycles.
Now volunteers are running shelters for people who lost their homes, receiving some state support but enforcing their own rules and setting up their own tracking systems for residents.
At one of the main medical centers serving the disaster area, a hospital in Vargas municipality, staff and local residents said patient numbers had eased compared with the chaotic days just after the earthquakes.
Roughly 6km away, a Brazilian Navy field hospital that started operating on Monday had treated 180 people by yesterday, according to Commander Leonel Mariano.
Spread across five tents near the beach, the facility includes an intensive care unit, an operating theater, orthopedics, pediatrics, general medicine and a pharmacy.
“We are coordinating buses to bring people here from the shelters,” Mr Mariano said.
“We haven’t performed surgery yet, but we’ve had some intensive care cases, some serious cases.”
Doctors also turned a McDonald’s restaurant in La Guaira into a makeshift health center, where they have treated about 200 patients a day since opening last week. The site offers emergency care, donated medicines, a pharmacy and even a veterinary unit operating out of the restaurant’s former ice cream section.
Against the backdrop of destruction, each rescue is offering a measure of hope to families still waiting for news of missing relatives.
‘Miracle’ as rescuers dig out Venezuelan man eight days after quakes
Security guard Hernan Alberto Gil was pulled alive from the rubble of the nine-story Galerias Playa Grande shopping center early yesterday, after rescue teams from El Salvador, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela spent days working at the site.
“I’m grateful to God for keeping him alive for so many days,” said Gusbimar Gonzalez, Gil’s wife. “He endured it all like a warrior.”
Mexican rescue workers also found a dog named Sarita alive in a collapsed building after her owner told responders he had heard noises beneath the debris.
Sarita was located by a military search-and-rescue unit and a rescue dog named Kai, then reunited with her owner, who said the moment gave him hope that his missing daughter could still be found alive.
The presence of security forces at collapsed buildings has at times fueled anger among residents.Some Venezuelans have vented their frustration on social media, posting videos that appear to show security officials sifting through debris and taking clothes, appliances and cash.
Reuters has not verified the videos’ authenticity, but the Interior Ministry said four crime scene police officials have been detained and dismissed from their posts for “appropriating financial assets acquired amid the ruins”.
