Six days after two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela, the confirmed death toll has risen to 1,719, with 5,034 injured and 15,866 displaced, according to figures released by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. The back-to-back tremors of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 on 24 June—the strongest in the country in over a century—were centred near San Felipe and Yumare, but the coastal state of La Guaira and the capital Caracas bore the brunt of the destruction. Aftershocks, including a 4.6-magnitude tremor on Monday, have repeatedly halted rescue work and deepened the sense of precariousness among survivors.

International search-and-rescue operations have expanded significantly, with the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, confirming that teams from more than 30 countries are now on the ground. The United Nations resident coordinator in Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla, said that some 2,000 foreign personnel, 160 dogs, and 1,000 tonnes of supplies have been mobilised. Yet local accounts gathered by correspondents describe a patchy response: in several neighbourhoods of La Guaira, residents say they waited days for professional help, relying instead on volunteers who lacked heavy equipment. Medical sources warn that damaged health facilities are operating beyond capacity, and the World Health Organization has flagged a heightened risk of vaccine-preventable and waterborne diseases.

A stark discrepancy has emerged between official damage assessments and preliminary satellite analysis. Venezuelan authorities report that 855 structures have been inspected, of which 189 suffered total collapse. By contrast, researchers at Oregon State University, using radar imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite, estimate that approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed across the affected region. The US space agency Nasa, which published the findings, stressed that the figure is a rapid, unvalidated indicator and not a confirmed count. The analysis covers roughly 75 per cent of the land area and may miss very small or closely spaced structures.

The number of missing remains deeply uncertain. The UN has cited an estimate of 50,000 people unaccounted for, while acknowledging that the final toll could be lower. In a sign of the grim expectations, the organisation has procured 10,000 body bags in coordination with local authorities. The US Geological Survey has separately assessed a 44 per cent probability that fatalities could exceed 10,000. As the sixth day of searching draws to a close, officials stress that all figures remain provisional and subject to revision as teams reach previously inaccessible areas.