Venezuela earthquake death toll reaches 1,719 as aid still misses mountain communities and rescuers pull survivors from rubble

Death toll surpasses 1,700

National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez updated the fatalities to 1,719 in a state television address on Monday. Another 5,034 people were injured and 15,866 left homeless, he said. The United Nations estimates the economic cost of the destruction at $6.7 billion. Across the affected region, 774 buildings sustained damage and 189 collapsed entirely.

5,034 people were injured by the earthquakes that occurred last Wednesday.

Rescue of a 21-year-old after 106 hours

Rescuers from Venezuela, Mexico and El Salvador pulled 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas alive from the ruins of a building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, on Monday. The operation lasted 43 hours, according to acting president Delsi Rodríguez. A body lying between the rescuers and the trapped man made the extraction far more difficult. El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele announced the rescue, saying teams would continue working in the hope of saving more lives.

Earlier, Dayana Patiño was rescued with her 18-day-old baby from the eighth floor of a collapsed apartment block in La Guaira. “My son was my motivation to stay awake and alert,” she said afterwards. “As long as he was alive, I would be alive too. Every so often I touched his nose to make sure he was still breathing.”

My son was my motivation to stay awake and alert.

Communities still waiting for help

In El Junquito, a small mountain town just 33 kilometres west of Caracas, residents said they have seen very few state officials since the quakes struck on 24 June. Local farmers and volunteers are distributing what basics they can. The commercial centre is largely destroyed and families are living in tents beside half-collapsed buildings. Unofficial reports speak of further deaths in nearby neighbourhoods.

“We are waiting for answers, for the debris to be cleared, for inspections to be done, for seriously affected people to be supported,” said Keily Ibarra, a 33-year-old manicurist who has taken it on herself to carry residents’ complaints to the authorities. “The government must do what needs to be done.”

We are waiting for answers, for the debris to be cleared, for inspections to be done, for seriously affected people to be supported.

Most international relief is concentrated in La Guaira, the province worst hit by the quakes. Venezuela has so far received assistance from 24 countries, including supplies, search teams and specially trained dogs.

Water crisis and sanitation strain

The UN has flagged limited access to clean water as a top concern, with damage to pipelines and power cuts disrupting supplies. At overcrowded shelters and public buildings, sanitation facilities are under severe pressure. The Act Alliance humanitarian consortium has placed water, sanitation and hygiene among the highest-priority needs. Relief organisations are distributing hygiene kits, but health officials warn that without fast repairs the risk of waterborne disease will grow.

Google’s quake alerts credited with saving lives

Venezuela lacks a national seismic warning network of the kind deployed in the United States, Mexico or Japan. As the first P-waves radiated from the epicentre on 24 June, Android phones across the country picked up the signal within three seconds. Google’s Earthquake Alerts system then sent written and audible warnings to 11.4 million devices, in many cases giving up to 120 seconds of notice before the destructive S-waves arrived. Specialists say the crowd-sourced detection network almost certainly prevented a significantly higher death toll.