Maria Paez Victor, Popular Resistance.
Venezuela experienced a devastating natural catastrophe that was unpredictable as it was unusual.
The nation also became a beacon of national unity and international solidarity.
Four days ago, on the 24th of June, a national holiday jointly celebrating St. John the Baptist Day and the key Battle of Carabobo that secured the nation’s Independence, Venezuela was struck by twin earthquakes, 39 seconds from each other, one of 7.2 on the Richter scale and the second of greater intensity, of 7.5.
The fault lines run through the northwestern valley of the capital Caracas and all along the coast, north of Caracas past the mountains. There was also damage in areas of the interior of the country. Experts call it a doublet. The devastation was unbelievable. Nothing like this has ever happened in South America and it was the strongest earthquake to hit Venezuela in over a century. And up to now (6/29/26) there have been 512 aftershocks damaging even further the already affected infrastructures.
The authorities have been giving regular updates and to date (June 30) report:
Dead: 1,719
Injured: 5,034
Homeless: 15,806
People affected: 22,619
Families attended by social services up to now : 75,238
# aftershocks: 609
Buildings affected: 855, of which 189 collapsed
90% of collapsed buildings were privately owned; only 10% were built by the state
The Caracas subway and most public services are operating now.
The heartwarming story is how Venezuelans rushed en mass to the affected areas to try to rescue people. In fact, there were so many volunteers in the coast that during the first hours it was quite disorderly. The Venezuelan Army, Police, the Emergency Protection, and scores of doctors and other professionals were first to rush to the devastated area, especially of the coastal area of La Guaira. The Cuban doctors, who have never left Venezuela, were there on the spot also. This is where the international airport is located and it had to be closed due to serious damages.
More than 30,000 Venezuelan rescuers worked tirelessly overnight that fateful day. I defy, challenge, any nation on earth to state exactly how prepared it is right now to withstand the fury of nature that has just hit Venezuela.
But Venezuela was not alone in this catastrophe. Among the first international expert rescue teams that arrived came from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Curacao, Barbuda, Cuba, followed by Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Chile, Turkey, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, Chech Rep, Spain, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Qatar, Uk, Serbia, Syria, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the United Nations. Supplies arrived from China, among others. Pope Leo XIV sent funds to its representative in Venezuela and ordered all parish churches to be open 24 hours to shelter the homeless and help the affected.
The United States, which bombed the country on January 3 killing 120 people, and kidnapped its president and first lady, much later sent a team and a lot of (unwanted) soldiers. Notably, although it has conditionally suspended some sanctions to supposedly not hinder humanitarian aid, it has not eliminated the +1000 sanctions nor returned the stolen $22 billion in Venezuelan assets held in US banks, monies which now are really needed for survival.
Canada’s prime minister -unbelievably- in January stated approval of the US kidnapping of the legitimate Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling the whole vile attack “welcome news”. Ottawa has not rushed to help Venezuela although it announced it might send 5 million dollars, but it is unknown just to whom that money will go to, perhaps to the US “account”?
The international rescue teams, in true solidarity, have arrived with special technology for listening and detecting life, with trained dogs, and with their expertise in digging out people from precarious rubble. There have been 2,624 international rescuers that have arrived, with their 137 trained dogs, equipment and 84 tons of food and needed supplies. China has already pledged donations for the reconstruction, as well as Russia.
The people in the area who have lost loved ones, who are still looking for loved ones trapped in the rubble and who are facing the complete loss of their homes, have expressed much relief in seeing the government and the foreign teams working there to help. The people are not thinking politics, they are injured in body and spirit and have been, at least, accompanied in their sorrow, as well as materially helped by the humanity of their countrymen and women, and the solidarity of the strangers from abroad that have gone to help them. There have been so many stories of heroism and care that will fill the history books to come and inspire people around the world toward greater solidarity.
However, natural catastrophes are often multiplied when a society does not have a preparedness for emergencies, does not have social organizations or institutions to cope with problems. Not so Venezuela that for 26 years has been working on transforming its society with its peaceful Bolivarian Revolution, into a participatory democracy whose fundamental premise is to have “an organized people”, not a “mass”, not a ”vague public”, not a passive lump of citizens. Hence the plethora of communal councils, communes and grassroots organization that have all sprung to help in this tragedy to make the aid efficient and effective.
I vividly remember the earthquake of 1967, which hit the very same areas that were hit on June 24th. Its power was 6.5 on the Richter scale, 236 people lost their lives and 2000 were injured. Two of my classmates died in that earthquake as their buildings collapsed. The only emergency unit that the country had at that time were the firemen and soldiers. None of the national special Emergency Unit, expert rescuers, social and community organizations that are in evident today in this dark time was present then.
26 years of Bolivarian Revolution’s social organizing, of creating community consciousness paid off in a most profound way, in the most deadliest circumstances that were wholly unpredictable. Immediately after the shocks, a veritable army of young motorcyclists that crossed the winding highway helped deliver water and food and other supplies that people were spontaneously donating.
It was all spontaneous for the first hours but the government has since then militarized the coast – the area most devastated- so that the rescuers are not overwhelmed by crowds. The trained dogs and listening devices need silence around them to be able to detect life. This means that only authorized people can enter the coastal danger zone. Also, volunteers now need to be registered at an arena in the city and 2,697 have already registered. The communes got to work organizing depots for donations all over the cities where the donations for food, medicines and clothing could be deposited, later to be distributed to the needy.
The emergency actions that the government has carried out have been reported meticulously, as far as it is able, and as events occur in these four days:
73,736 families attended
7.2 tons of food distributed
20,501 bags of groceries delivered to families on the affected coast
12,049 people attended medically
7,976 families have been relocated to one of the largest parks in the city where they are settled in an organized way with tents, and social services.
All children that have been orphaned or are alone, or are in hospital, are under Special Child Protection to make sure of their safety and identity.
There is a web site with all sorts of helpful information and also an APP and a phone number for reporting Missing Persons and other misfortunes.
I only wish the residents of New Orleans had had this kind of government response and amount of social emergency organization when Katrina hit them.
Venezuela has been delt a horrific blow yet unscrupulous people in social media have taken the opportunity to criticize and invent sensational lies. The CBC mentioned the false videos that are circulating. See: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7250863
Venezuelans that are working tirelessly to rescue their fellow countrymen and women, need and have welcomed with open arms the real international solidarity shown by many nations that have sent aid and especially their expert teams to help save lives. That is the wonderful story of solidarity and humanitarian concern that the world should know and applaud.
Venezuelans are resilient, they are united in their sorrow, and will emerge a stronger, humane, and determined nation. They will reconstruct. It has withstood 26 years of political aggressions and did not give in. It will not give in now as it will remember the words of its Liberator, Simón Bolívar who, when in 1812 a terrible earthquake hit Venezuela, exactly in the same areas that that twin earthquakes hit: Caracas and La Guaira, and enemies of the Independence sought to politicize the tragedy. Bolívar stood on a parapet and said that nature would not stop the movement for Independence.
“If nature opposes us, we will fight and make it obey.”
Venezuela today is still fighting for its Independence.
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