分类： world

In the wake of two catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes that left at least 188 people dead and hundreds more injured across Venezuela, the large Venezuelan diaspora community across the United States has mobilized at speed to organize urgent donation drives to support relief efforts on the ground.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors, which struck Wednesday evening, rank among the most powerful seismic events to hit Venezuela in over 100 years. The quakes inflicted severe structural damage to Simon Bolivar International Airport, Venezuela’s primary air gateway located in the capital Caracas, a critical blow that threatens to slow the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to affected regions. Graphic imagery from the disaster zone shows dust-covered, bleeding injured civilians, children and animals being pulled from collapsed concrete rubble, while thousands of people remain unaccounted for — leaving relatives living in the U.S. desperate for updates on their loved ones.

More than 770,000 Venezuelan-born people currently reside in the United States, with the largest concentration settled in Doral, a suburban city just outside Miami, Florida. Oscar Torres, a 28-year U.S. resident and sales manager based in Doral, has spent nearly a full day glued to a dedicated WhatsApp group connecting Venezuelan residents with their relatives abroad, tracking updates and coordinating donations.

“Already this morning, I was looking at the Doral group and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” Torres explained. “They’re talking about making the first shipment as soon as possible.” Torres still has extended family living in Caracas and the hard-hit city of Valencia, where a number of his relatives suffered minor injuries while fleeing damaged buildings. “Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” he said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.” Local Doral officials and Venezuelan advocacy organizations have amplified calls for donations across social media and official press conferences, with Torres planning to contribute cash to the relief effort.

Beyond Florida, other large Venezuelan communities in Texas have also sprung into action. In the Houston metropolitan area, where the western suburb of Katy has earned the nickname “Katyzuela” for its massive Venezuelan population, residents have leveraged Facebook groups and other social platforms to advertise local drop-off points for donations. The most urgent needs identified include first aid and medical supplies: gauze, bandages, antiseptic solutions, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers and blood pressure monitors are all high priority for aid shipments.

Daniel Arenas, a maritime industry consultant who relocated to Houston from Venezuela a decade ago, translated a Spanish donation call to English and shared it to his LinkedIn profile Thursday, urging a broader cross-section of the Houston community to contribute. “I came to this country ten years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

Arenas shared that his wife spent hours anxiously waiting for news after her aunt, a Caracas high-rise resident, sent a panicked voice note moments after the quakes hit. “She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas recounted. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.” The family was later able to re-establish contact with her aunt, bringing an end to the hours-long period of uncertainty.

The outpouring of organizing across U.S. Venezuelan communities comes as Venezuelan authorities assess the full scale of the disaster, with relief operations already facing logistical hurdles from damaged infrastructure.

Two rare consecutive deadly earthquakes rocked Venezuela this Wednesday, leaving hundreds dead and injured across the affected region. The destructive doublet quake has drawn renewed attention to the severe seismic risk that has shaped the history of the Americas, prompting a retrospective look at the deadliest seismic events recorded across Central and South America over the past 100 years.

In September 2017, Mexico faced an unprecedented seismic disaster when an 8.1 magnitude quake and a 7.1 magnitude aftershock struck within seven days, laying waste to large swathes of southern and central Mexico, including the capital Mexico City. The event claimed the lives of nearly 500 people and left thousands more displaced.

Just one year earlier, on April 16, 2016, a 7.8 magnitude tremor hit Ecuador’s coastal provinces, leveling entire towns and killing more than 650 residents. In February 2010, central Chile was shaken by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the capital city for 90 straight seconds before triggering a devastating tsunami. The disaster resulted in 523 fatalities. Three years prior, in August 2007, an 8.0 magnitude quake off Peru’s central coast killed more than 500 people.

One of the deadliest events in recent regional history unfolded in El Salvador across the first two months of 2001. A 7.7 magnitude offshore quake on January 13 was followed just a month later by a 6.6 magnitude aftershock. Combined with massive landslides triggered by the seismic activity, the back-to-back events killed more than 1,200 people. In January 1999, a 6.0 magnitude quake destroyed the Colombian city of Armenia, leaving roughly 1,170 people dead.

In April 1991, a 7.4 magnitude quake killed more than 80 people across Costa Rica and neighboring Panama, leaving an estimated 30,000 residents cut off from critical food, clean water, and emergency medical supplies for days. In September 1985, an 8.1 magnitude quake hit central Mexico, killing an estimated 12,000 people; the true death toll has never been confirmed due to widespread reporting gaps in the aftermath of the disaster.

Going further back, in February 1976, a 7.5 magnitude quake hit western Guatemala, killing more than 22,700 people. Four years earlier, in December 1972, a 6.2 magnitude quake struck Nicaragua, killing a minimum of 6,000 people, with unofficial estimates placing the death toll as high as 9,000. In May 1970, a 7.9 magnitude quake hit northern Peru, killing more than 66,000 people, making it one of the deadliest seismic events in the region’s modern history.

The 1960 Great Chilean Earthquake, also known as the Valdivia Earthquake, remains the most powerful quake ever recorded in human history, registering a magnitude of 9.5. The disaster killed more than 1,655 people, many of whom lost their lives to the massive tsunami it triggered, and left more than 2 million people homeless. Nearly a decade earlier, in August 1949, a 6.8 magnitude quake in Ecuador killed roughly 5,050 people.

In January 1939, an 8.3 magnitude quake hit the Chilean city of Chillan, killing approximately 28,000 people, with some estimates putting the death toll near 30,000. At the start of the 20th century, in January 1906, an 8.8 magnitude quake struck near Ecuador’s Esmeraldas, an event dubbed the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake. It generated a massive tsunami that killed roughly 1,500 people and traveled all the way north to the coast of San Francisco, California.

On a devastating Wednesday evening, Venezuela was hit by two back-to-back powerful earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, marking one of the strongest seismic events to strike the South American nation in over a century. The tremors were felt across the entire surrounding region, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake: official casualty reports confirm at least 164 people have been killed, more than 1,000 others have sustained injuries, and dozens more remain trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings as of Thursday. By Thursday morning, Venezuelan emergency response teams were racing against the clock, leveraging every minute of daylight to accelerate search and rescue operations for survivors still buried under destroyed infrastructure. In the hours following the disaster, world leaders and senior officials from across the globe issued statements of solidarity and committed tangible support to Venezuela’s relief and recovery efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the nation’s condolences via the social platform X, saying, “The United States extends our deepest condolences to the people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes.” Rubio confirmed that the U.S. was launching an immediate emergency response, noting “the United States is ‘immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.’” He extended sympathies to all grieving families, injured victims, and praised the on-the-ground rescue crews working around the clock to find survivors.

French President Emmanuel Macron also issued a statement via X, affirming France’s unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people. Macron confirmed that a specialized team of 85 search and clearance rescue workers would be deployed to the disaster zone without delay, adding, “France stands ready, alongside its European partners, to provide assistance to the affected populations in response to the needs identified by the Venezuelan authorities.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reaffirmed his country’s commitment to supporting Venezuela through the recovery process. Lula announced he had directed Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to launch an immediate assessment of on-the-ground conditions to determine what forms of aid Brazil can contribute. “I reaffirm our determination to support the government of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in the recovery of affected areas in this sister nation, whose people have demonstrated great resilience in the face of adversity,” he wrote on X.

At a Thursday press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun extended sincere condolences to the Venezuelan government and all communities impacted by the quakes. “China is willing to provide assistance to Venezuela to the best of its ability, according to Venezuela’s needs,” Guo stated, confirming China’s readiness to contribute to relief efforts upon request.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shared his message of support via Instagram, writing, “All the support from me and Spain to the Venezuelan people after the devastating earthquakes of last night. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

Colombia’s President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella also voiced his full solidarity with the Venezuelan people via X. “I stand in full solidarity with the brotherly people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquake. Colombia stands with you during this difficult time with affection, respect, and hope. My prayers are with the victims and their families. God will provide,” he wrote.

Venezuela is reeling from a devastating pair of powerful earthquakes that struck Wednesday, adding a new layer of catastrophe to a nation already grappling with political chaos and years of systemic decline. As death tolls continue to climb in the wake of the tremors, the disaster has laid bare both the enduring challenges and subtle shifts in the South American country just five months after a dramatic US military operation removed long-ruling leader Nicolás Maduro from power. Maduro, the left-wing leader who governed Venezuela from 2013 until January 2026, was captured in a dawn raid on his Caracas presidential compound and extradited to New York to face trial on international drug trafficking charges.

In the aftermath of Maduro’s removal, his close ally and former vice-president Delcy Rodríguez stepped into the role of interim president — a move that frustrated opposition supporters, who had expected the Trump administration to install opposition leader María Corina Machado at the helm of the transitional government. Now, Rodríguez’s response to the twin earthquakes is offering a clear snapshot of what has, and what has not, changed in Venezuela, as the country confronts the severe vulnerabilities of its long-decrepit infrastructure.

More than two hours after the quakes hit, Rodríguez delivered a national address on the state-owned television network VTV. In the gap between the disaster and her public address, official updates were extremely limited. While broken communication lines in the hardest-hit regions explain part of this delay, the information vacuum also traces back to media restrictions enacted under Maduro’s tenure. The former government shut down hundreds of independent local radio stations and online news outlets that would typically serve as critical sources of on-the-ground updates for affected communities during a crisis.

Rodríguez spoke alongside two of her closest allies: her brother Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, who swore her into office days after Maduro’s capture, and Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister and a steadfast Maduro loyalist. In a notable break from his public appearances in the months leading up to the US intervention, Cabello did not wear his customary military fatigues, instead standing silently beside the interim president alongside Jorge Rodríguez. Visibly shaken by the disaster, Rodríguez opened her address with a urgent call for national unity, appealing to a population that has remained deeply polarized for more than a decade between supporters of Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez, and opposition factions.

She also declared a national state of emergency and appointed General Juan Ernesto Sulbarán, commander of Venezuela’s National Guard, to lead the country’s disaster response efforts. This appointment reflects a long-standing pattern of Venezuelan politics: throughout the 25 years that Chávez and Maduro held power, top government positions were almost exclusively filled by high-ranking military officers. For years, most key state ministries were led by generals, and analysts widely attribute the country’s crumbling infrastructure to the lack of specialized expertise among these military appointees.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Rodríguez has recently made small moves to diversify her cabinet: she replaced the general leading the housing ministry with a civilian architect, and swapped the military head of the electricity ministry for a professional electrical engineer. Even with these incremental changes, decades of mismanagement, compounded by crippling US economic sanctions, have left most public infrastructure — particularly public housing — in severe disrepair. For example, the state-owned cement industry collapsed after its nationalization under Chávez, creating a nationwide shortage of building materials that has left critical structural repairs undone for years. This has left millions of buildings far more vulnerable to collapse during seismic events like this week’s quakes.

Venezuela’s emergency response services have also suffered from chronic underinvestment, a side effect of the military’s outsized influence over national spending. For decades, funding and equipment were prioritized for the armed forces, leaving civil protection and rescue agencies without modern tools, rescue vehicles, and sufficient resources to respond to large-scale disasters. Recognizing these deep shortcomings, Rodríguez publicly thanked foreign governments that have already pledged support to Venezuela’s relief effort — and in a striking break from Maduro’s policy, she explicitly highlighted aid offers from ideologically opposed leaders, including US President Donald Trump. She told the nation that the Trump administration had maintained constant communication with Venezuelan authorities to offer support and solidarity. She also thanked the right-wing presidents of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Chile for their offers of assistance.

Maduro consistently restricted foreign aid to assistance from ideological allies, so Rodríguez’s willingness to accept help from across the political divide marks a clear shift in policy. For Venezuelans waking to widespread destruction, and for the dozens of families still waiting for news of loved ones trapped under collapsed rubble, this open approach to international aid offers a faint glimmer of hope amid overwhelming tragedy and ongoing national uncertainty. “The solidarity between our people is an invaluable source of strength in moments like these,” Rodríguez said in her address.