The death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on the evening of Wednesday 24 June climbed to 1,430 on Sunday, according to the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. A further 3,238 people were injured and 3,142 families left homeless, he said, as rescue crews from over two dozen nations continued to sift through the ruins of collapsed buildings in the hardest-hit coastal state of La Guaira. The back-to-back tremors — measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — struck within 39 seconds of each other and were followed by more than 400 aftershocks, levelling entire apartment blocks and severing power and communications.

Authorities and international agencies offered widely diverging estimates of the missing, reflecting the chaos of the disaster zone. The United Nations humanitarian aid coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said on Friday that more than 50,000 people were unaccounted for, while an opposition-run website registered over 55,000 missing. The International Organization for Migration projected that up to 6.76 million people could be affected, including 2 million in the capital, Caracas. With the critical 72-hour survival window now closed, the search has shifted increasingly to recovering bodies, although isolated rescues — including an 11-year-old boy pulled alive from the rubble and a mother and her 9-month-old baby saved by a US team — have sustained dwindling hopes.

An international relief effort unprecedented in recent Venezuelan history has brought more than 2,700 search-and-rescue specialists and 140 sniffer dogs from at least 24 countries, along with 521 tonnes of supplies. The European Union released €5 million in emergency assistance and activated its Copernicus satellite mapping system; the United States deployed urban search-and-rescue teams, mobile hospitals and a naval vessel. Yet on the ground, residents in La Guaira and Caracas described scenes of chaos and neglect. Volunteers attempting to reach the disaster zone were turned away at military checkpoints unless they held special permits, prompting anger. “They came to take pictures and eat arepas, not to help,” one local man told journalists, echoing complaints that official rescue crews were absent or under-equipped in the early hours.

The physical damage has been provisionally assessed by the UN Development Programme at $6.7 billion, equivalent to roughly 6 per cent of Venezuela’s GDP. Hospitals in the affected region are overwhelmed, with many working beyond capacity; UNICEF has warned that 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance. The disaster unfolds against a backdrop of deep political upheaval: the country is led by an acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, after US special forces captured her predecessor in January. Rodríguez has acknowledged the “critical hours” but faces growing public frustration over the speed and scale of the official response. All casualty figures remain provisional and are expected to rise as recovery efforts continue.