In La Guaira, in front of the Caribbean Sea which has regained its emerald color, the curtain of smoke rose over the horror. In the Suma sector, along Playa Grande, buildings housing social housing lie gutted, pulverized on a pile of scrap metal and concrete blocks. The smell of death is unbreathable. Now, day and night, the few cranes and excavators made available are still trying to save lives.
Not far away, Nelly Rodriguez, survivor, testifies to JDNews: “I was in the basement parking lot when it happened. Suddenly, I found myself in the dark among the rubble. And the water in the pipes flowed and rose quickly. I saw a ray of light, turned on my cell phone and realized there was a narrow passage. I miraculously extricated myself with my dog. All my neighbors are dead. The most terrible thing is that the Bolivarian National Guards prevent the Chilean or Salvadoran rescuers from intervening, because they say that they are capable of doing it themselves, that they have been trained for that, but this is false and we waste a lot of time. » Missions Vivienda (housing), erected in the 2000s, during the heyday of Hugo Chavez, were for a long time the pride of the regime which boasted of having built more than 5 million housing units. At what price?
Cardboard constructions…
“It’s a real earthquake within an earthquake, estimates sociologist Tomas Paez from JDNews. Engineers from the Central University of Caracas, dispatched to the site, are becoming aware, amid the rubble, of the level of irresponsibility of the Chavista authorities. As luck would have it, it is in this area, hastily rebuilt after the disaster of torrential rains of 1999, that there is the most damage. They erected on a seismic zone Siberian concrete bars already not adapted to the climate. The materials used are inadequate, the structures are not resistant to tremors, the concrete is of poor quality. Today, the already resilient Venezuelan society can only rely on itself, and international aid is unfortunately delayed for bureaucratic or political reasons. In reality, we experienced three disasters between 1999 and 2026: the torrential rains, this double earthquake and this failing and corrupt state, incapable of anticipating. »
It’s right next to one of these “cardboard towers”as the population calls them, that Valeria, 37 years old, administrator, found her father dead in the rubble. “I live in Caracas, I had no more news from him. The next day I went looking for him in La Guaira, 30 kilometers further down. I had to pass through dozens of military checkpoints. They wouldn’t let us pass. Fortunately, I have an all-terrain vehicle and I was able to sneak through side roads to get to his house. The building was completely collapsed. There was nothing, not a single rescuer, not an excavator. With my friends, we forced the military roadblocks to search for him with our bare hands, at our own risk, while the roof threatened to collapse and crackling electric cables hung everywhere. I finally found his body at the end of the day, partly trapped by a pile of beams. Due to lack of material means to extract his remains, and to prevent his putrefaction, I had to scatter talcum powder myself on his face and the visible parts of his body. Since then, while waiting for him to be taken out, I sleep in my car, volunteers distribute sandwiches and bottles of water to us”she still laments to JDNews.
An outdated diet
Symbol of a country ravaged by the double earthquake, the Simon-Bolivar international airport in Maiquetia, whose main runway is streaked with cracks and the terminal partly destroyed, has been closed to air traffic since the famous night. More cruel for the dying socialist regime, it was an American plane, C-17 Globemaster III, loaded with search and rescue teams and medical equipment, which landed first, as best it could. Today, American rescuers are on site to save lives and reopen the airport as quickly as possible to facilitate the arrival of reinforcements. Images show Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, stung, arguing with one of them, prevented from doing his job.
“We need more rescuers, fewer soldiers”
Present on site the day after the disaster, Delcy Rodriguez, the interim president since the capture of Nicolas Maduro by American special forces on January 3, announced to the boos of the crowd a first paltry human toll of “32 dead and 700 injured, and the dispatch of 14,000 agents, mainly police and armed forces”. This weekend, the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) put forward alarming estimates of more than 50,000 missing people. “We need more rescuers, fewer soldiers”confides to JDNews, on condition of anonymity, a French survivor from the Altamira district, a privileged area in the center of Caracas, devastated by the earthquake.
“Delcy Rodriguez lives nearby, in a complex completely barricaded by hundreds of soldiers. This shows how she is not reassured. For my part, the building where I live is seriously affected. We’re waiting for the experts, but when will they come, if they come? In fact, since Maduro fell, it’s the same people who are in power, that hasn’t changed, we’re still in trouble. But after? I’m not going back to France, it will soon be the same with you…”
