Venezuela Earthquake 2026: Twin 7.2 and 7.5 Magnitude Quakes Kill 235, Injure 4,300 as Desperate Search for Survivors Continues

Rescue teams and desperate residents scrambled through mountains of rubble on Thursday in search of survivors after two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela within less than a minute of each other on Wednesday night, leaving at least 235 people dead and approximately 4,300 injured.

The United States Geological Survey measured the back-to-back tremors at magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, making the stronger of the two the most powerful quake to hit Venezuela in 126 years. The hardest-hit area was the northern coastal state of La Guaira, where buildings cracked, crumbled and tilted dangerously. Aftershocks continued into Thursday, adding fear and urgency to the already chaotic rescue operation.

The human toll was devastating and deeply personal. In one harrowing scene in La Guaira, residents listened helplessly as a trapped young girl cried out for help for hours. “We need people…, military personnel, to come and help so we can get her out,” pleaded local resident Dani Rizo, 48. The girl later died, according to residents who spoke to AFP. Nearby, three more survivors could be heard calling from beneath the ruins of a collapsed building, but a resident identified as Antonio Bermudez said: “They’re still alive… There’s nothing more we can do. We don’t have any tools. We have no way to help.”

At the Domingo Luciani Hospital, a doctor speaking anonymously described children arriving alone in ambulances after being pulled from the wreckage. “Some children provide their names, while others arrive with identification tape on their arms,” the doctor said. A rescue worker, also speaking off the record, warned that conditions on the ground were precarious due to a shortage of trained personnel and significant technical limitations.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez visited La Guaira after it was declared a “disaster zone,” while AFP reporters observed residents looting a local supermarket. Venezuela’s director of the International Rescue Committee, Nicole Kast, described the overall situation as catastrophic. La Guaira’s international airport, critically damaged in the quakes, was shut down, threatening to complicate the delivery of international aid.

Global support moved quickly. Switzerland, Spain, France, Portugal and Mexico dispatched specialists and rescue teams. The United States announced it was deploying two warships, transport planes and helicopters, and mobilizing $150 million in emergency aid. “We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big, it’ll be fast, and it’ll be effective,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. China, India, Brazil and Iran also offered assistance, while Pope Leo XIV sent an initial donation of 100,000 euros. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” by the disaster, and UN aid chief Tom Fletcher called for “massive collective efforts” to respond.

The tremors were felt as far as Bogota, Colombia, where residents evacuated buildings as a precaution, and were reported across several cities in northern Brazil. In Caracas, scenes of panic played out as many residents spent the night sleeping in the streets or in their cars. Among them was Rita Gomez, 60, who rushed to the capital after seeing on social media that her daughter’s building had collapsed. She told AFP that heavy machinery had arrived and said there was “a lot of cooperation from the neighbors. We are trusting in God that they will find her alive.”