VENEZUELA REELS FROM DOUBLE-WHAMMY EARTHQUAKES

A global rescue and relief effort is underway as Venezuela continues to reel from the effects of two devastating earthquakes that rocked the country on June 24th. The back-to-back magnitude 7.1 and 7.5 quakes have already caused over 2,000 deaths, with over 50,000 people still unaccounted for.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA), more than a week after the earthquakes, rescue teams are still pulling survivors from the rubble well beyond the critical 72-hour window.

“More than 2,000 rescue personnel and 160 search dogs from 27 countries remain on the ground, working through hundreds of aftershocks to reach those still trapped,” it reports.

However, amidst the tragedy, there are cases of miraculous survival and rescue of people trapped in the rubble. Over 10,000 have been found, but thousands of families have been displaced. Destruction and damage to infrastructure, including roads, rail, and bridges, commercial buildings, and homes, is widespread, with estimates already in the billions of dollars.

It’s the worst natural disaster to have struck the country this century, with thousands of images on the internet, mainstream and social media showing the horrifying extent of the destruction.

The main impact was in the north-west state of Yaracuy, where the two epicentres were pinpointed near the towns of San Felipe and Yumare.

EXTENDED IMPACT

Meanwhile, reports from as far away as Trinidad’s south-east coast, over 500 miles from the impact area, show deformations along parts of the local coastline, with sections of the beach pushed several feet above their normal position.

Earlier warnings of the risk of a tsunami sweeping northwards across the western Caribbean Sea were discontinued. That projection had the southern Dutch Caribbean ABC islands(Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) located near Venezuela’s Caribbean coast in its path, along with areas as far north as Puerto Rico.

This natural disaster adds to Venezuela’s political woes which have worsened this year. The country has been targeted by the US Trump administration with severe economic, diplomatic, and military pressure, including the abduction of its former leader, Nicolas Maduro, who is now on trial in New York on drug trafficking and corruption charges.

Maduro’s former deputy leader, Delcy Rodriguez, who has taken over the country’s leadership, is already facing unrest over what her critics say is the national government’s slow response to the catastrophe.

It is felt that how she handles this disaster, along with the fallout from the Maduro saga, will be a crucial leadership test for Rodriguez, who is now seen as a Trump ally.