The Venezuelan government updated its official death toll from the double earthquake that occurred on June 24 this Tuesday, raising the number of fatalities to 4,734 people, according to the official report released by Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly.
The official report on the emergency, published three weeks after a double earthquake with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 shook the northern part of the country with epicenters in the state of Yaracuy, also records 16,740 injured and 6,462 people rescued alive.
The number of fatalities has steadily increased since the initial 164 deaths reported on the night of June 24: 920 on June 26, 1,719 on June 28, 2,295 on July 1, 3,535 on July 6, 4,118 on July 10, 4,561 on July 13, reaching a total of 4,734 as of this Tuesday.
The official report also details that 190 buildings have collapsed and 856 have been affected, while 1,275 aftershocks have been recorded since the original earthquakes.
In terms of humanitarian assistance, the regime reports 107 temporary camps housing 20,903 individuals, 17,907 people without shelter, and 128,324 families receiving assistance. A total of 10,063 tons of food and more than 21.7 million liters of water have been distributed, with 33,652 patients receiving medical care.
For rescue operations, the government reports the deployment of 30,989 personnel, 31,050 volunteers, and 2,471 international rescuers from at least 11 countries.
However, the official figures stand in sharp contrast to estimates from independent organizations. The United States Geological Survey issued a Red Alert and estimates with a 42% probability that the actual number of fatalities could be between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
The UN estimated that up to 50,000 people are missing under the rubble. Tom Fletcher, head of humanitarian aid for the organization, described this scenario as "terrifyingly plausible" on June 27. The citizen platform "Encuéntralos" recorded over 71,000 people unaccounted for as of June 29, according to reports on doubts regarding the official figures.
The Venezuelan government, led by interim president Delcy Rodríguez, has not published any official numbers of the disappeared. Rodríguez has responded to international criticism regarding the management of aid, labeling it as "narratives fabricated in propaganda laboratories," while Jorge Rodríguez justified the lack of data on the disappeared by stating the need to "avoid speculation."
NASA detected 58,000 damaged or destroyed buildings according to satellite images, and the material damages are estimated to be between 4.7 and 8.7 billion dollars, equivalent to between 4% and 8% of Venezuela's GDP, further exacerbating an already weakened economy.
The Venezuelan government itself described the double earthquake on June 24 as "the most catastrophic event this Republic has suffered in the last 123 years," a magnitude that independent figures suggest might be even greater than what is acknowledged in official reports.
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