MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela raises official death toll from June double earthquake above 5,000

The true scale of the disaster remains surrounded by uncertainty

The official death toll from the double earthquake that struck northern Venezuela on June 24 rose on Friday to 5,069, after 139 new fatalities were added, according to the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez. The tally, released via Telegram, keeps the number of injured at 16,740 and of people left homeless at 17,907. Authorities present these figures as provisional, more than three weeks after the disaster.

The two quakes, of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck barely 39 seconds apart, with epicenters in the country's northwest. The larger one was the most powerful recorded in Venezuela in more than a century. La Guaira state, on the central coast, was the hardest hit, with numerous buildings collapsing; damage was also reported in Caracas and other parts of the north.

The true scale of the disaster remains surrounded by uncertainty. The US Geological Survey had estimated a high probability that the death toll would exceed 10,000, and international organizations and media have warned that the figure could be considerably higher than the official one, with tens of thousands of people still missing. Efforts to verify the disaster's magnitude have been hampered by information restrictions in the country, where numerous websites remain blocked; the UN urged authorities to fully restore access to media and social networks.

According to the official report, authorities have assisted 128,324 affected families, while 21,235 people remain in 107 temporary camps. Since June 24, some 1,331 aftershocks have been recorded; the most recent sizeable one, a week ago, caused panic and precautionary building evacuations in La Guaira.

The government launched a biometric census to determine the number of homes needed, which it estimates at around 25,000. On Tuesday, the National Assembly approved on first reading a reform of the Law against Real Estate Fraud to speed up reconstruction. The first vice-president of Parliament, Pedro Infante, said the amendment — pending a second debate — seeks to provide legal certainty and financing so the private sector can begin an accelerated home-building process.

The disaster strikes a country going through a prolonged institutional crisis. The government is led by acting President Delcy Rodríguez — sister of Jorge Rodríguez — following the capture in January of President Nicolás Maduro, currently held in New York awaiting trial on drug-trafficking charges. Rebuilding La Guaira and the affected areas is shaping up as one of the administration's main challenges in the months ahead.