Two days after a pair of powerful back-to-back earthquakes rocked northern Venezuela, the disaster’s death toll continued to climb sharply Friday, with public anger and desperation growing over slow government response to the crisis. The quakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 respectively, struck Wednesday evening off the country’s Caribbean coast, leaving widespread destruction across coastal communities near the capital Caracas, most notably the hard-hit port town of La Guaira, where hundreds of structures have collapsed.
