CARACAS – Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency after two major earthquakes shook the capital Caracas yesterday just seconds apart – the first a magnitude 7.2 and the second 7.5
Rescue crews were searching the rubble of collapsed multi-storey buildings for survivors and Venezuela’s main international airport has been closed due to serious damage from the earthquakes.
Rodríguez offered her condolences without specifying how many people have died while the United States Geological Survey warned of high casualties and extensive damage, saying the “disaster is likely widespread”.
Venezuela was celebrating a national holiday and many people would have been at home when the quakes struck at 6:04 p.m.
The quakes hit an area west of Caracas, and could be felt throughout the country and as far away as Bogota, Colombia.
“The two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths,” US President Donald Trump has written in a post on Truth Social.
“The U.S.A. stands ready, willing, and able to help!” he added.
Trump says he has “instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly.”
“We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good!!!” he stressed.
The US will dispatch search and rescue teams and medical and humanitarian supplies to Venezuela, says Jeremy Lewin, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance.
The State Department has a disaster assistance team that’s working with partners in the interim Venezuelan government, he says.
Countries in Latin America have also offered assistance.
El Salvador president Nayib Bukele says his country has prepared 50 tonnes of equipment and supplies, as well as 300 rescuers who are “ready to depart for Caracas”.
Ecuador, too, has arranged aid to be sent immediately to Venezuela, says its President Daniel Noboa Azin.
Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said his country will assess what measures of assistance it can adopt to support its “sister nation”.
Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Roberto Velasco Álvarez also offered Venezuela “all the solidarity and support it may require”. (BBC)
