The Scientific, Criminal, and Forensic Investigations Corps (CICPC) of Venezuela deployed forensic teams this Friday in the state of La Guaira to identify the deceased victims following the earthquakes of June 24, aiming to provide certainty to the thousands of families searching for their loved ones.
The director of the agency, Douglas Rico, confirmed that technical teams are distributed across critical points of the coastal entity to expedite scientific protocols amid the emergency. The work is carried out in coordination with other security and rescue agencies.
"Technical commissions are deployed at the critical points of the entity to expedite scientific protocols amid the emergency," declared Rico, as reported by Noticiero Venevisión.
The authorities committed to maintaining forensic assessments to provide "certainty and institutional support to the families affected by the seismic event," according to the same news report.
The urgency of these efforts is rooted in a tragedy of historic proportions. The two earthquakes—measuring 7.2 and 7.5 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS)—struck northern Venezuela with only 39 seconds apart, with epicenters in the states of Yaracuy and Carabobo, and are classified as the most powerful recorded in the country since 1900.
La Guaira experienced the most devastation: more than 250 buildings collapsed, including the José María Vargas Hospital, and a NASA satellite analysis estimated that nearly 59,000 structures suffered damage exceeding 75%.
As of July 2, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez raised the official death toll to 2,595, with more than 12,400 injured and approximately 26,000 affected, as reported by Infobae.
However, the gap with international estimates is alarming: the UN estimates that around 50,000 people could be missing nationwide, while the USGS estimated with a 42% probability that the final number of victims could range between 10,000 and 100,000.
Rodríguez promised that all the deceased will be individually identified before being handed over to their families and ruled out the possibility of burials in mass graves.
In the midst of the crisis, the CICPC also had to confront cases of internal corruption. On July 1st, four agency officials were arrested and dismissed for stealing money found among the rubble, a behavior that Rico himself described as "indecorous."
This Friday was marked as the official last day for the search of survivors, making forensic identification the most urgent task for Venezuelan authorities in light of the thousands of families still waiting for news of their loved ones.
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