The Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed this Thursday that Washington is already sending search and rescue teams to Venezuela, in response to the devastating two earthquakes that shook the north of the country on June 24, which have so far resulted in 164 fatalities and 971 injuries.
"We are already deploying search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. There will be others that we will add," Rubio said, emphasizing that the most urgent need at this moment is rescuing individuals trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The logistics of the deployment face an immediate obstacle
The Maiquetía International Airport suffered severe structural damage, with at least one runway cracked. Rubio noted that the Department of Defense will need to provide the necessary resources to operate under these conditions, and confirmed that he has already spoken with the Secretary of Defense to coordinate the effort.
The U.S. is also providing satellite images of coastal areas where Venezuelan authorities do not have full visibility of the damage.
"We are also helping them with aerial images, especially in coastal areas where they do not have full visibility on what the damages have been," Rubio explained.
The head of U.S. diplomacy established a critical window of 48 to 72 hours for rescuing survivors trapped under the rubble and warned that a more accurate assessment of long-term needs will only be possible once the teams are on the ground.
The response is not exclusively American. Rubio mentioned that Qatar has already offered assistance, that El Salvador joined immediately, and that Chile and other countries in the region have reached out to Washington to coordinate efforts.
"We have a response from the entire government. It will be substantial, swift, and effective," he stated.
The two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.1 and 7.5 struck northern Venezuela just 39 seconds apart on Wednesday at 6:04 PM local time.
The 7.5 magnitude earthquake is the strongest recorded in the country since 1900, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which issued a maximum Red Alert and estimates between 10,000 and 100,000 potential fatalities in its most significant probabilistic projection, with a 42% probability.
The interim president Delcy Rodríguez declared a constitutional state of emergency, designated the state of La Guaira as a disaster zone, and announced a fund of 200 million dollars to address the crisis. "The state of La Guaira is a true tragedy."
"There are dozens of collapsed buildings, and we are engaged in very strenuous rescue efforts to save the lives that God allows us to save," he declared.
Rodríguez publicly thanked Trump and Rubio for their support, something unimaginable under Nicolás Maduro's administration. "I want to thank President Donald Trump and his government for their continuous contact with the Venezuelan government, providing support, solidarity, and we will be receiving rescuers in the first hours," she stated.
This response occurs in a radically different diplomatic context than in previous years: after Maduro's capture in January 2026, Rodríguez adopted a pragmatic stance towards Washington, and the U.S. reopened its embassy in Caracas on March 30 as part of a normalization agreement.
Notably, Cuba—historical ally of the Venezuelan regime—was not among the countries mentioned by Rodríguez when he expressed gratitude for the international support received following the disaster.
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