Two shallow earthquakes, magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck Venezuela’s northern coast in quick succession on 24 June, collapsing hundreds of buildings and triggering one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s modern history. According to the latest official bulletin released by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, the confirmed death toll has risen to 4,561, with 16,740 people injured and 17,907 left homeless. The figures, published on Monday, also record 6,462 survivors pulled from the rubble, 20,231 people sheltering in 107 temporary camps, and 190 buildings that suffered total collapse, mostly in the coastal state of La Guaira and the capital, Caracas.

Rescue and recovery operations continue to be supported by 2,471 international specialists and more than 30,000 Venezuelan personnel, while medical teams from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and the United States run field hospitals to contain respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses spreading in overcrowded displacement sites. The government says 128,324 families have received assistance and 33,085 patients have been treated. Aftershocks persist, with 1,254 recorded since the main events, and NASA satellite data indicate surface displacements of up to 60 centimetres along the Caribbean–South American plate boundary.

A significant gap remains between official data and the number of people still unaccounted for. Venezuelan authorities have declined to issue a missing-persons estimate, with Rodríguez stating that the government operates “based on reality, not speculation.” The United Nations, however, has said the figure could reach 50,000, while a volunteer-run online platform, Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela, lists 29,877 individuals whose families have yet to make contact, alongside more than 14,000 who have been located. The discrepancy underscores the difficulty of establishing a definitive count in a disaster zone where many informal settlements were destroyed and communications remain disrupted.

Diplomatic activity has accelerated alongside the humanitarian response. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has formally requested that King Charles III intervene to release Venezuelan gold reserves held at the Bank of England, and has asked the International Monetary Fund to unfreeze resources blocked by sanctions. The United States has temporarily eased some restrictions to facilitate aid flows, while Russia delivered 10 tonnes of medical supplies and Israel deployed engineering teams to assess damaged structures. In a cabinet reshuffle announced on Monday, Rodríguez named Félix Plasencia as the new foreign minister, merging the foreign affairs and trade portfolios, and reassigned the previous minister, Yván Gil, to the science and technology portfolio.

Recovery is expected to take years. The UN has appealed for $296 million to assist 1.3 million people over the next six months, and the government has begun a biometric census of displaced families to plan prefabricated housing. As heavy machinery clears debris in La Guaira and Caracas, the official death toll is likely to rise further, though the pace of body recovery has slowed. For now, the figures remain provisional, and the full human cost of the double tremor is still being measured.