Thousands missing as Venezuela earthquake death toll surpasses 1,400

The death toll in Venezuela’s twin earthquake disaster reached 1,430 on Saturday, June 27, 2026, and millions more were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs as the first United States aid flights trickled into Caracas.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez reported 1,430 dead and 3,238 people injured, while the United Nations estimated $6.7 billion in physical damage – equivalent to six per cent of Venezuela’s GDP.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher on Friday said the death toll could continue to soar, adding that more than 50,000 people were missing.

Facing public outrage at the response by local officials, U.S.-backed interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez said the country was “not alone.”

The United States said one runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport was now functioning and that C-17 US military planes were landing there, while a naval ship had arrived off the coast.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said search-and-rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilized to help find survivors.

However, the search for survivors saw desperate attempts by local residents to claw away rubble from apartment buildings that collapsed in Wednesday’s double-quakes. Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters are the key, narrow window for finding the living.

There was joy in the hardest-hit coastal area of La Guaira, north of Caracas, when locals pulled an infant alive out of the wreckage on Friday, some 32 hours after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors.

Venezuela declares emergency after earthquakes kill 32

In one social media video, a man welled up in tears as he held the baby in his arms.

UN’s migration agency said it had examined available population and damage data and had determined that “up to 6.76 million people could be affected,” and would “require emergency shelter, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, healthcare, protection support and essential relief items.”

Earthquakes of similar magnitude claimed more than 200,000 lives in Haiti in January 2010 and 73,000 lives in Kashmir in October 2005.

Those killed in Venezuela included 28 Portuguese nationals, five Spaniards, two Brazilians, seven Chinese nationals, one Chilean, and one Italian-Venezuelan.

Venezuela’s northern coast sits on a boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, but had not experienced a major quake since 1997.