Venezuela's Quake Toll Nears 2,000 As Morgues Overflow And Anger Mounts

Last Updated:July 01, 2026, 20:17 IST

Twin quakes devastate Venezuela, with 1,943 dead, over 10,000 injured, 15,000 displaced and 42,000 missing, UN warns toll will rise as Delcy Rodriguez faces mounting criticism

Two magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes struck Venezuela on June 24, with the Venezuelan government saying on Tuesday that the confirmed death toll had reached 1,943, with more than 10,000 injured and 15,000 displaced.

The figures are almost certainly incomplete: more than 42,000 missing-person reports have been filed with a tracking website run by the opposition, since the government has not released its own count of the missing.

The United Nations has said that it was sourcing 10,000 body bags in anticipation that the toll will keep rising, a grim procurement task made harder by a country already gripped by years of economic collapse. The UN’s refugee agency said on Tuesday that basic services had ceased to function in the worst-hit areas.

Searching For Survivors

In La Guaira province, the epicentre of the destruction, officials have set up an improvised morgue beneath grain silos at the seaport, where a steady flow of bodies continues to arrive. Workers there have been seen carrying coffins and spreading lime to mask the smell, while families gather outside for news of relatives.

With no substantial government-led search-and-rescue effort under way, it has largely fallen to residents themselves to pull survivors and the dead from the rubble by hand, even as rescue teams from more than fifty countries arrive to assist.

US Deportees Amongst Those Missing

Among those unaccounted for are more than a hundred Venezuelans who had been deported from the United States just hours before the earthquakes hit; the hotel where they were reportedly staying collapsed in the disaster.

One man, Maikol Heredia, located the body of his cousin at the La Guaira morgue, a relative who had been deported that same day after nine years away, and whom Heredia is now trying to raise roughly $850 to transport home, some 720 kilometres away.

Another woman, Alicia Mendoza, has spent days searching hospitals and the makeshift morgue for her missing son, one of the deported group; a body initially presented to her under his name turned out not to be him.

Hospitals have buckled under the strain, with the World Health Organization warning of overcrowded wards, mounting surgical backlogs and a breakdown in basic biosafety protocols.

Government Under Fire

The disorganised response has become a political liability for interim president Delcy Rodríguez, who succeeded Nicolás Maduro after his arrest and removal by US forces, and who has secured Donald Trump’s backing to open Venezuela’s oil sector to foreign investment.

Residents in La Guaira have accused Rodríguez and interior minister Diosdado Cabello of indifference bordering on hostility toward earthquake victims. When Rodríguez visited a collapsed building site in Caracas last week, she was met with hostile crowds demanding she leave.

Separately, footage circulating online this week appeared to show Cabello in a confrontation with a member of a US rescue team. Washington has pledged $300 million in relief funding and deployed military assets alongside roughly 900 personnel.

Machado To Return?

Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado has said she intends to return from exile to assist with recovery efforts, though she claimed on Monday that the government had shut Venezuelan airspace ahead of her planned flight from Panama.

Caracas itself was largely spared the destruction seen in La Guaira, though firefighters and volunteers continue inspecting buildings for structural safety. Displaced families are sheltering in tents across the capital’s Plaza Venezuela, many too afraid of aftershocks to return home, as the wait for news from the morgues continues.

About the Author

Anoshito Banerjee

Anoshito Banerjee is a digital journalist at CNN-News18, specialising in Indian foreign policy, global diplomacy, South and West Asian geopolitics, and strategic affairs. His reporting spans hard news...Read More

News world Venezuela's Quake Toll Nears 2,000 As Morgues Overflow And Anger Mounts

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