Volunteers rush aid to Venezuela after powerful earthquakes hit north-central region

Volunteers loaded vehicles with medical supplies, shovels and rescue tools in north-central Venezuela after twin earthquakes. The second quake struck about 39 seconds after the first, leaving search teams digging through rubble while power and hospital services faltered.

The quakes hit on June 24, 2026, with preliminary magnitudes of about 7.2 and 7.5. Their epicenters were near Morón in Carabobo State, and the shaking spread across Caracas, La Guaira, Aragua, Carabobo and neighboring states. A state of emergency was declared as casualty and damage figures continued to be assessed.

The earthquakes were among the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century, landing on top of an already severe aid crisis. At the start of 2026, 7.9 million people in Venezuela needed humanitarian support, and OCHA's 2026 response requires about US$606 million to reach 5.4 million people.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched a 50 million Swiss franc emergency appeal to support 300,000 people and dispatched the first 17 tonnes of humanitarian supplies from Panama. The Venezuelan Red Cross volunteers were working around the clock on search and rescue, psychological first aid, family tracing and damage assessments, even as its national headquarters was critically damaged and some volunteers lost their homes.

Project HOPE had more than 100 local staff in Venezuela and began responding within hours of the disaster. The United Nations had mobilized 25 international teams with about 1,000 personnel.