Social media users are sharing many videos of buildings collapsing and people trapped under rubble, saying it shows the destruction of two massive earthquakes in Venezuela. Although many videos are authentic, some are not of the June 24 destruction.
Venezuela’s government said June 29 that more than 1,700 people were killed after 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck within 39 seconds in northern Venezuela, west of Caracas, collapsing hundreds of buildings.
Multiple aftershocks followed, including a 4.6 magnitude temblor on June 29.
Here are some of the misleading posts and what they actually show.
Video of a white building collapsing is from a demolition
(Screenshot of Instagram post.)
This video of a building collapsing and causing a big dust cloud has been shared in English and Spanish since June 25 on X, Instagram and Facebook.
Using reverse image search, we found an X post from a person who said the video is from a 2023 demolition in Turkey. PolitiFact found that a Turkish news site posted the video in October 2023. The article, which we translated from Turkish to English with Google Translate, said the building was being demolished after earthquake damage.
This is an old video of a mom shielding her young child
(Screenshot of X post.)
Other social media posts said a video shows a mother in Venezuela shielding her child in a bed with her body. But that video is old.
“Venezuela Earthquake: A Mother’s Love Became the Greatest Shield,” said a June 28 X post. “As powerful tremors struck, a pregnant mother instinctively shielded her young child with her own body, lying over them to protect them from danger.”
We found a version of the video on Instagram in 2025. That post did not specify where it happened.
Venezuelan fact-checkers from Observatorio Venezolano de Fake News also flagged this video as out of context.
Clip of an orange building collapsing is from Turkey
(Screenshot of Facebook post.)
This Facebook video of a building collapsing and electrical poles falling also isn’t from Venezuela.
After doing a reverse image search, we found that a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian daily newspaper reported the building collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey in February 2023.
The Guardian also shared the video saying the collapse happened during an aftershock of the 7.8 quake.
Viral posts falsely said a young child was rescued
As of June 29 afternoon, Lucas Gámez, a boy born in Argentina to Venezuelan parents, is among the missing people in La Guaira.
“Lucas is alive. Lucas Gámez was rescued alive from the rubble of a building in Caraballeda,” says a June 28 Instagram post in Spanish. “His parents have confirmed the news, and he is on his way to the clinic.”
However, his mother said in a video and on her Instagram story on June 28 that he was still missing. She said the rescuers found an adult’s body, not her child.
This video of laser beams in the sky has circulated since March
(Screenshot of X post.)
An X post shared a video of red laser beams appearing and moving across a grayish sky above an array of houses.
“An instant before the Venezuela earthquake struck, multiple laser beams scanned the ground below,” reads the June 28 X post.
But social media users have shared this video since at least March.
We have previously fact-checked claims about laser beams appearing before natural disasters hit, such as during the 2023 Hawaii wildfires.
Direct energy weapons are real — such as lasers, radio frequency devices and high-powered microwaves — and the U.S. and other governments are exploring using them for military purposes.
However, there is no evidence these beams appeared in Venezuela before the quakes.
