A week after two powerful back-to-back earthquakes struck central Venezuela, the disaster has left a devastating trail of destruction, killed more than 1,700 people, and spilled over into cross-border impacts that have displaced Guyanese residents living in the affected region, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd confirmed in a statement Monday.
Three Guyanese households lost their homes when their residences collapsed in the seismic event, with Todd estimating a total of 10 to 12 Guyanese citizens have been directly impacted by the quakes that hit last Wednesday. No fatalities have been reported among the Guyanese population, who reside in a tight-knit Caribbean community in the quake zone. To assess the full scope of damage and check for potential unreported injuries, Guyana’s ambassador to Venezuela, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles, is scheduled to travel to the affected community on the outskirts of Caracas in the coming days, Todd added.
The scale of the disaster across Venezuela remains severe, updated UN figures revealed Monday. The United Nations’ Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla, announced in a press briefing that roughly 12,000 Venezuelans have been displaced from their homes, and more than 5,000 others have sustained injuries. With search and rescue operations still ongoing in collapsed structures, the Venezuelan government has approved the purchase of 10,000 additional body bags, as authorities prepare for further increases to the death toll.
Seven Venezuelan states have reported damage from the quakes, though the vast majority of casualties and destruction are concentrated in La Guaira state and Caracas’ Distrito Capital. Roughly 2,500 buildings have sustained damage, and many of these structures have completely collapsed, leaving dangerous rubble-strewn landscapes across affected regions.
Hazardous conditions continue to hamper recovery efforts nearly a week after the initial quakes. Seismologists have recorded almost 500 aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.2 tremor that struck early Monday morning. Compounding these risks, an approaching tropical wave is forecast to bring heavy rainfall to the disaster zone, raising threats of flash floods and additional structural collapses.
“We continue to operate in a high-risk environment,” Rampolla told reporters.
In response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, both the Guyanese government and the country’s private sector have joined forces to assemble emergency aid shipments. The combined relief effort is gathering at least 8,000 tonnes of essential supplies, including rice, other non-perishable food products, pharmaceutical goods, and other basic necessities. The supplies are scheduled to be loaded onto a Guyanese cargo vessel, which will depart for Venezuela this Friday.