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The Ministry of Public Health of Cuba (MINSAP) confirmed this Thursday that all Cuban health collaborators deployed in Venezuela are safe following the two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck the northern part of the country on Wednesday with just 39 seconds apart.
According to the informative note published by MINSAP, the Cuban Minister of Public Health, Dr. José Ángel Portal Miranda, immediately contacted the Directorate of the Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela upon learning of the earthquakes.
The mission's leadership successfully established contact with the teams in the 24 states where Cuba has collaborators, and all reported they are safe.
Additionally, the statement notes that many of those professionals joined the assistance efforts from the very beginning to support the affected Venezuelan population.
"The collaborators of the Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela reaffirm their commitment to the health and well-being of the people amid the difficult situation that this sister nation is experiencing," states the official text from MINSAP.
The Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela is the largest health cooperation initiative led by Cuba in the world, with approximately 12,930 collaborators distributed throughout Venezuelan territory, according to official data from July 2025.
The earthquakes on Wednesday, with epicenters in the Yaracuy state and the Yumare area, are the strongest recorded in Venezuela since 1900, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The catastrophe has resulted in up to this Thursday 164 fatalities and 971 injuries, according to the official report from the acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who declared the state of La Guaira a disaster zone due to the collapse of dozens of buildings.
In Caracas, the 14-story Petunia residential building collapsed, along with at least one 22-story tower in the Altamira area, while more than 90 structures were affected in the Miranda state alone.
The USGS issued a Red Alert —its highest level— and its impact estimation system calculated a 42% probability of between 10,000 and 100,000 possible fatalities, although these are automated projections, not actual counts.
Among the countries that offered international aid to Venezuela are the United States, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Qatar, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico. Cuba was not mentioned in that list, despite having thousands of collaborators on the ground.
Delcy Rodríguez publicly thanked President Donald Trump and his administration for their support, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the immediate dispatch of search and rescue equipment, medical supplies, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.
The Cuban medical mission in Venezuela had already gone through a turbulent phase at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, when Cuba began a gradual repatriation of personnel following the fall of Nicolás Maduro's government.
In January 2026, the brigade resumed its healthcare work in Caracas, and in March of that year two Cuban doctors passed away in Venezuela under circumstances that prompted their families to raise concerns.
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