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The official toll of the earthquakes that shook Venezuela on June 24 amounts to 4,118 fatalities and 16,740 injured, according to the report presented this Friday by Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, broadcasted by Venevisión news.
The report also accounts for 6,462 people rescued alive, 190 collapsed buildings, 856 affected structures, and 17,907 citizens who lost their homes, distributed across 89 temporary camps housing 17,266 people.
The death toll has continued to rise since the first report on June 25, which recorded just 32 fatalities. In a little over two weeks, the official number steadily increased to exceed four thousand, making this disaster the worst seismic event Venezuela has experienced in over 126 years.
The seismic doublet of June 24—two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 separated by just 39 seconds—had its epicenter in the boundary area between the states of Yaracuy and Carabobo, near Yumare and Morón, at a depth of approximately 10 kilometers, which drastically amplified structural damage.
The state of La Guaira accounts for the majority of the destruction: 158 of the 190 collapsed buildings are located in that coastal area, where nearly 1.2 million tons of debris have accumulated.
The rescue efforts involve 30,076 Venezuelan personnel, 3,454 international rescuers, and 29,843 volunteers. Authorities report having distributed 9,766 tons of food and more than 13.9 million liters of water, as well as having assisted 29,966 patients. Since the main earthquake, 1,171 aftershocks have been recorded.
However, official figures are increasingly being called into question. The Venezuelan government has not, at any point, published a number of the missing, an omission that has sparked a wave of criticism.
The citizen platform "Encuéntralos" has accumulated over 71,000 reports of missing persons, while the UN estimates up to 50,000 missing individuals.
The United States Geological Survey issued a Red Alert since June 25, with a 42% probability that the total number of fatalities could range between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
Among the international victims are at least eight confirmed dead Cubans and more than 20 missing, primarily in Caraballeda, Catia La Mar, and Los Corales, in the state of La Guaira.
Cubans remain missing after weeks following the earthquake, including a family of six found beneath the rubble on June 28.
The UN estimates that 6.76 million people were affected by the disaster and calculates economic losses nearing 6.7 billion dollars, equivalent to 6% of Venezuela's gross domestic product.
Venezuela and the international organization are working on prefabricated housing solutions for the homeless, while Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has requested King Charles III to release the Venezuelan gold held in the Bank of England to finance the reconstruction.
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