An investigation by the Associated Press published this Wednesday concludes that the Venezuelan government ignored warnings from scientists and engineers before constructing large residential complexes in the coastal area of La Guaira, a zone of high seismic risk where at least 14 apartment towers collapsed on June 24, 2026, during two consecutive earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5.
The agency interviewed dozens of engineers, seismologists, and former officials to reconstruct the decision-making process that resulted in the construction of the most vulnerable types of buildings on one of the country's most hazardous sites.
The soil along the coast of La Guaira is loose silt accumulated over centuries from floods and landslides, a material that amplifies seismic waves rather than dampens them. Moreover, the San Sebastián fault runs offshore and goes directly underneath the state. Experts consulted by AP warned that towers between 10 and 20 stories can sway at the same frequency as the seismic waves—an occurrence known as resonance—multiplying the stress on the columns until collapse occurs.
Carlos Valdés, head of the seismology department at the Geophysics Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, was categorical: "They were challenging nature," he said about the officials who made the decision to build there.
The origin of these decisions dates back to 2010 and 2011. After the torrential rains displaced more than 100,000 people in Venezuela, the Government of Hugo Chávez launched the Great Housing Mission Venezuela to relocate the victims. Political urgency and the scarcity of land drove the rapid construction in the coastal strip, disregarding land use restrictions that had been specifically designed to protect that area.
These restrictions were established by Carlos Genatios, an engineer and former Minister of Science who led the reconstruction plan following the disaster of 1999, when floods and landslides killed tens of thousands of people in La Guaira. Genatios stated to AP that scientists had clearly warned: “There are areas, plots of land, that should not have been used because they are prone to flooding during major floods; in those places, very lightweight structures, parks, sports fields, or similar facilities that do not cause significant damage and, above all, do not result in casualties, should be placed.”
Among the most affected projects is the Hugo Chávez Frías Urban Development in Playa Grande, inaugurated in 2012 with the cooperation of the Turkish company Summa. The complex, which housed approximately 3,400 families in around 190 buildings, experienced the collapse of nearly 80% of its structures. Journalistic reports documented that the buildings were constructed with lightweight materials—expanded polystyrene, aluminum, and thin sheets—without proper foundations and lacking beams or columns capable of supporting the structural weight, and that they never complied with Venezuelan seismic standards.
The OPP towers in Caraballeda, including the OPP 26 and OPP 27 complexes, are also among the buildings that collapsed. The Venezuelans who risked their lives to rescue survivors from the rubble described scenes of floors crushed upon one another, fires ignited by the explosion of gas tanks, and hundreds of people trapped inside.
The government of interim president Delcy Rodríguez has not publicly responded to questions about why so many buildings collapsed or why so many people died, according to AP. Three months after the earthquakes, the questions and demands from survivors remain without an official response.
The official toll rose to 6,509 deceased as of August 24. In the initial days following the earthquakes, the UN estimated over 50,000 missing persons. The AP investigation is the first thorough journalistic reconstruction of the chain of decisions that turned a known risk area into a death trap for thousands of Venezuelan families.
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