MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela quake toll rises to 4,490 as government defends withholding missing figure

Rodríguez defended the government's decision not to release a figure for the missing, nearly three weeks after the disaster

The death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24 rose to at least 4,490, after another 157 fatalities were added to Saturday's count, according to figures released by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. The number of injured held at 16,740 and that of people rescued alive at 6,462.

Rodríguez defended the government's decision not to release a figure for the missing, nearly three weeks after the disaster. “We cannot operate on the basis of speculation, we have to operate on the basis of reality,” he told reporters in Caracas. He said authorities were not withholding information and that, since the day after the quakes, they have published the death toll because it is the only certainty they have. The last official figure for people unaccounted for dates from June 25, when it was put at 157. By contrast, independent citizen-run platforms have registered close to 30,000 people whom relatives have been unable to reach.

The official, brother of acting president Delcy Rodríguez, said 315 bodies remain unidentified. He explained that they could not be matched to an identity either through recognition by relatives or through fingerprints. He rejected reports of burials in mass graves and said the remains are being interred at a cemetery in the affected area after dental records, fingerprints where possible, and skin samples for DNA analysis are taken, to allow for later identification.

Rodríguez also responded to criticism over the slow pace of debris removal. He argued the process must be gradual, because the government has not ruled out finding people alive and because families are seeking to recover the bodies of their relatives. Abrupt use of heavy machinery, he said, could endanger any survivors.

According to the latest report, 120,794 families have received assistance and 19,583 people remain housed in 108 temporary camps, fourteen more than on Saturday, set up mainly in schools in Caracas and the states of Miranda and La Guaira, the hardest-hit region. Some 9,995 tons of food and 18.5 million liters of water have been distributed, with more than 30,000 registered volunteers and about 31,800 officials deployed. Since June 24, a total of 1,222 aftershocks have been recorded.

The government began a biometric census over the weekend to determine how many homes are needed, with a preliminary estimate of 25,000 units. Around 18,000 people lost their homes, though authorities expect that figure to rise as inspections of damaged buildings continue. Rodríguez announced that the acting president will hand over the first 200 homes next week. Independent verification of the data remains limited by access restrictions in the affected areas.