Venezuela militarises La Guaira after twin quakes kill at least 920, with 50,000 feared missing

The twin quakes

Two powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday 24 June at 18:04 local time, within less than a minute of each other. The epicentres were centred near the coastal state of La Guaira, roughly 30 kilometres from the capital Caracas. The double shock was the most severe seismic event in the country since 1900.

Devastation in La Guaira

La Guaira, a narrow strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Ávila mountain range, bore the brunt of the destruction. Interior minister Diosdado Cabello said more than 100 buildings collapsed, though other estimates put the figure at double that number. Over 70,000 families are reported to have lost nearly everything. The main international airport, Simón Bolívar International at Maiquetía, suspended operations due to structural damage, and sections of the coastal highway fractured. The beach resort enclaves of Playa Grande, Puerto Viejo and Catia La Mar were reduced to fields of rubble, with satellite imagery from geospatial firm Vantor showing entire residential complexes flattened.

Try to imagine, comrades who live elsewhere, the scale of the impact of these earthquakes.

Rescue and humanitarian crisis

Rescue efforts have been hampered by a lack of heavy machinery, collapsed infrastructure and overwhelmed hospitals. Dr Franklin Rodríguez, a physician who travelled from Caracas, described the health system as completely collapsed, with the state's two main hospitals "totally overwhelmed." Shortages of medicines and medical supplies were acute. In the absence of official teams, relatives and volunteers dug with their bare hands through the debris, searching for survivors. Nights following the initial shocks were marked by fear of aftershocks and reports of looting.

The medical centres do not have the capacity to attend to the enormous volume of people, and many remain trapped under the rubble.

Death and missing toll

Casualty figures vary across official and unofficial sources. The ministry of health reported at least 235 deaths and 4,300 injuries on Thursday evening. By Friday, other official tallies had risen to 589 dead and 2,900 injured, while later reports cited up to 920 fatalities and 3,360 wounded. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs received an unconfirmed estimate that the number of missing could reach 50,000. International Organisation for Migration spokeswoman Zoe Brennan said up to 6.76 million people may have been affected overall, including two million in Caracas. Five Spanish nationals are among the dead, 14 remain trapped under rubble and 119 have not been located.

Government mobilisation

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed power after Nicolás Maduro's capture by the United States in January, first declared La Guaira a disaster zone on Thursday. On Friday she announced the militarisation of the state, deploying 11,500 personnel from the National Guard, armed forces, police and army to coordinate humanitarian aid and maintain public order. More than 100 teams with heavy machinery were mobilised for recovery operations, and routes were being cleared to allow rescuers to reach collapsed buildings.

A region shaped by risk

La Guaira is Venezuela's principal gateway, home to the country's busiest airport and port, and a popular holiday destination for caraqueños, attracting up to a million visitors in summer and carnival season. Its geography, squeezed between mountain and sea, leaves it exposed to both seismic activity and landslides. The region was devastated in 1999 by the Vargas tragedy, a massive landslide that killed around 1,500 people.