Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of Venezuela, promised on Monday that before the end of 2026, there will be new homes for families who lost their houses in the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that devastated the northern region of the country on June 24, resulting in a toll, according to the latest official report, of 1,719 deceased and 5,034 injured.
The announcement was made during the establishment of the General Staff for the creation of temporary camps and the planning of housing construction, broadcast by the state channel VTV.
"The Ministry of Housing and Habitat is developing projects for the construction of homes as quickly as possible. There are thousands of solutions expected before the end of this year. Additionally, we are in meetings with international experts and organizations that are also providing immediate housing solutions," Rodríguez stated.
The official also announced a housing classification system using a three-color traffic light: green for those that can be inhabited without intervention, yellow for those requiring repairs —to be undertaken by the Gran Misión Barrio Nuevo, Barrio Tricolor— and red for those that are completely lost, which will be replaced with new constructions.
Engineers and architects are deployed in the states of La Guaira, Miranda, and Caracas to assess the habitability of the affected properties, while a fingerprint registration system will be implemented for those entering the temporary camps.
"It is a task that we must tackle together and immediately, without delay, and that is why the establishment of this command center," Rodríguez emphasized.
The scale of the housing challenge contrasts sharply with the regime's promises. The NASA estimated, through satellite analysis, that nearly 59,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in Venezuela, while the government officially acknowledges only 855 affected buildings, of which 189 suffered total collapse.
The PNUD estimated the direct damages at 6.7 billion dollars, equivalent to 6% of the Venezuelan GDP, with a total potential impact ranging between 10.05 billion and 20.1 billion dollars, according to data collected after the earthquakes.
The UN, for its part, estimates that up to 50,000 people are missing following the earthquakes, a figure that contrasts with the official report of 15,866 affected individuals reported by Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly.
Search and rescue efforts continue with the participation of over 2,741 international specialists from 24 countries, 86 canine teams, and 521 tons of assistance sent to the country.
Rodríguez mentioned the arrival of a brigade from Vietnam and rescuers from Cuba among the present contingents, in an international response that also includes 150 million dollars contributed by the United States in humanitarian aid.
The earthquakes of June 24 are the deadliest that Venezuela has experienced in over a century.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, warned that the organization was already providing assistance to about eight million Venezuelans before the earthquakes, which further exacerbates the response capacity to a disaster of this magnitude.
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