Venezuela earthquakes kill 164, as rescuers race to find missing

Families in La Guaira walked through concrete dust and bent metal on Thursday, searching for a missing child and a boyfriend trapped in the rubble as twin earthquakes killed at least 164 people across Venezuela. The gap between the official response and what people on the ground said they needed was visible in the streets: more hands, more tools and faster access to the missing.

The quakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck less than 40 seconds apart on Wednesday evening. At least 971 people were injured and thousands were reported missing nationwide, while rescue teams used power tools to break through collapsed buildings in the hardest-hit areas north of Caracas. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez called La Guaira a disaster zone and said crews were being shifted there from other parts of the country to maximize daylight search efforts.

State television showed three children being pulled alive from the debris in La Guaira, a rare moment of relief in a city where residents said Civil Defense, firefighters and hospitals were being overwhelmed. Survivors and relatives moved through shattered neighborhoods in La Guaira, Catia La Mar and Caraballeda, asking for help in locating loved ones and pressing for more personnel as the search stretched on.

The tremors were among the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century and their effects spread well beyond the coast. Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela’s main airport near Caracas, was damaged and closed, and buildings were evacuated as far away as Brazil’s Amazon after the shaking rippled across the region.

The disaster is now testing a country already weakened by economic turmoil and eroded infrastructure investment. Daniel Aldrich of Northeastern University said Venezuela once had stronger building standards and disaster preparation, but those systems have since been strained, leaving officials with fewer resources as the toll rose and families kept digging.