Here's the latest
• Deadly quakes: The death toll from the twin quakes in Venezuela — a country mired in political and financial crisis — has risen to around 235, as rescuers race to reach survivors before the “golden window” closes. The second quake was the country’s most powerful in more than a century.
• Nowhere to go: Many people are missing or still trapped beneath rubble. Affected residents have nowhere to go after their homes were flattened in La Guaira, Caracas and surrounding areas.
• Global response: The US military are on the ground for rescue efforts in Venezuela – where, earlier this year, special forces conducted a deadly raid to seize President Nicolás Maduro. Relief teams from around the world are also mobilizing help, and pledges of foreign aid are pouring in.
• Here’s how you can help earthquake victims in Venezuela.
US Treasury temporarily lifts some sanctions on Venezuela to allow for aid after earthquakes
The US Department of the Treasury on Thursday announced it will allow “all transactions” with Venezuela “related to earthquake relief efforts.”
The partial and temporary easing of restrictions is authorized from June 26 through October 23 only, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The general license covers the processing and transfer of funds on behalf of third-country persons “to or from” Venezuela, provided they support operations covered by the specific authorization.
Venezuelans have been frustrated with the slow pace the government’s rescue response in the immediate aftermath of the twin quakes that struck Wednesday.
“People are really frustrated. They are scared because they know that they don’t have a state that will fulfill its role. So they know that nobody is going to go there and help them,” said Venezuelan economist Jorge Jraissati.
Passengers panic as earthquake shakes plane at Venezuela airport
Eyewitness video shows passengers aboard a plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport on Wednesday when earthquakes struck Venezuela.
The footage, published by Reuters, shows passengers trying to steady themselves as the plane began to rapidly shake on the tarmac.
The airport, located in Maiquetia, in the hard-hit state of La Guaira, suffered severe infrastructure damage from the quakes and was forced to temporarily close.
Quake disaster could make or break Venezuela's new leader
The once-in-a-century disaster unfolding in Venezuela will be a defining test for the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who came to power with US support following the dramatic capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.
During her first six months in office, the long-time Maduro ally has succeeded in liberalizing the economy and winning over US President Donald Trump, earning relief from crushing sanctions.
But much of the repressive and corrupt structure in place during Maduro’s reign remains, with no concrete date set for democratic presidential elections. Depressed wages, a weak currency and hyperinflation have continued to make life difficult for ordinary Venezuelans, many of whom struggle to afford basic goods.
This week’s earthquakes will test Rodriguez’s dwindling promise of economic prosperity and stability for Venezuela.
“A disaster of this scale presents an opportunity to consolidate her position as a national leader rather than simply as Maduro’s caretaker successor,” said Tiziano Breda, Latin America and Caribbean senior analyst for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).
Improved relations with the US and Europe could make it easier to mobilize humanitarian aid and reconstruction support for Venezuela, Breda added.
Venezuelans have viewed Maduro’s ousting as an opportunity to express discontent. More than 1,400 protests were recorded in the first half of 2026 — more than double the total for all of 2025, according to ACLED.
Venezuelan economist Jorge Jraissati said the earthquake response has been hampered because Venezuela does not “have a functioning state.”
In televised remarks after the quakes hit, Rodríguez called on Venezuelans to come together. She said: “I ask that we act in national unity and with calm, knowing that together we will overcome this tragedy.”
CNN’s Kathleen Magramo contributed to this report.
Before and after images show devastation of quakes
New satellite images shared by spatial intelligence company Vantor reveal extensive damage in the Venezuelan coastal city of La Guaira, just 10 miles north of central Caracas, following the deadly twin earthquakes.
New satellite images shared by spatial intelligence company Vantor reveal extensive damage in the Venezuelan coastal city of La Guaira, just 10 miles north of central Caracas, following deadly twin earthquakes. The death toll from the deadly double earthquakes that hit Venezuela on Wednesday has risen to around 235, according to Health Minister Carlos Alvarado.
British national in Caracas describes chaos and worry on the streets after quake
British national Dan Baker said it was “calmer” on the streets in Caracas on Thursday after the “chaos” and “worry” of Wednesday night following the devastating twin earthquakes.
Power cuts as a result of the earthquakes meant some elderly people were trapped in their apartments and with cell service down, people couldn’t communicate with their relatives, Baker told Reuters news agency from his home in the Los Palos Grandes area.
Baker was at the gym when the earthquake struck — the second quake was Venezuela’s most powerful in more than a century — and he had to walk through a closed off zone to reach his home.
“That’s when I really saw how bad it was, because I saw three tower blocks that completely collapsed. And one of them had came down over a three lane highway,” Baker told Reuters.
Baker said the community is pulling together and helping each other in whatever way they can.
Hundreds of people slept in the street Wednesday night, fearful of further quakes, he said. “People from the building were collecting things to take to the building that collapsed nearby,” Baker said.
Venezuela "has no capacity to act," says journalist as people reel from quake devastation
Venezuelans are not only reeling from the physical destruction of their country, but also a deepening lack of government coordination in the aftermath of the twin quake crisis, a Caracas-based journalist told CNN on Friday.
“The second day I feel, has been even harder than the first day because we finally realized the extent of the damage… we suspect the number of casualties is higher,” Tony Frangie Mawad said.
Mawad described a “vacuum of authority” in Venezuela and said the “state has no capacity to act.”
“The army hasn’t been widely deployed, or at least not in a visible way,” Mawad said, adding the burden of rescue and relief has fallen on civil organizations, schools, local churches, and families.
Mawad said social media has been flooded with posts of people searching for missing loved ones and calling for help in areas where rescuers have not reached yet.
Global response efforts for Venezuela are ramping up. Here's where things stand
Various countries are deploying rescue teams to Venezuela and pledges of foreign aid are pouring in a day after twin earthquakes destroyed neighborhoods and devastated communities.
The United States is deploying elite rescue teams, medical resources and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela. The State Department announced the US will provide $150 million in aid. And the US military is directing its forces in the region to support relief operations, including the amphibious transport ship USS Fort Lauderdale and transport aircraft.
The United Nations said it is coordinating the deployment of urban search-and-rescue teams to Venezuela.
Neighboring Colombia announced it would send humanitarian aid as well as more than 60 rescuers and four dogs to help with search efforts.
El Salvador sent a contingent of 300 rescuers and paramedics to Venezuela on Thursday, and the government said it arranged the shipment of 50 metric tons of humanitarian aid, including medicine and essential supplies, Reuters reported.
Chile has sent a specialized unit of the Chilean fire department, USAR (Urban Search and Rescue), to Venezuela, Reuters reported.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said health personnel from Cuba are “actively cooperating in the care of the victims” in Venezuela, though he didn’t provide details.
The Dominican Republic has flown in specialized personnel and supplies, according to Reuters.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said he has ordered the dispatch of a rescue mission and personnel from the National Civil Protection System. Donation centers have been set up and people in Panama have been rushing to donate supplies.
Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it will send aid supplies, provide funding and deploy a field hospital. A military plane is also bringing 57 soldiers from its search-and-rescue unit and 40 firefighters.
Mexico sent two Mexican Air Force transport planes carrying 261 personnel, including soldiers, air force members and National Guard troops to Venezuela on Thursday, Reuters reported. The contingent included doctors, nurses and specialized search-and-rescue teams. Authorities said the mission is delivering 4.4 tons of equipment and 2.7 tons of medical supplies. A separate C-130 Hercules aircraft is expected to leave with an additional eight metric tons of medicine and four tons of rescue materials.
France said it is deploying a search-and-rescue unit, medical teams, engineers and dogs to help locate and extract survivors from collapsed buildings, according to Reuters.
Pope Leo has sent an initial aid package worth 100,000 euros (roughly $113,700).
Japanese NGO Peace Winds, that provides emergency humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and reconstruction support to crisis-affected areas, is on its way. to Venezuela.
The European Union said it “stands ready” to mobilize assistance if it receives a request.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei announced the country’s “readiness” to provide assistance in relief and rescue operations.
China, which has close ties to Venezuela, said it is “willing to provide assistance within its capabilities.”
Various organizations and even civilian volunteers have also joined rescue efforts.
Volunteer documenting rescue on Instagram urges people to wait for official updates from authorities
Working just around the corner from the Petunia apartments — one of several high rises that collapsed in the Los Palos Grandes district of Caracas — personal trainer Edwin Borges immediately jumped into action to help search and rescue operations.
He spent all Thursday clearing rubble and debris to help specialized teams enter collapsed structures and find survivors. He has been documenting his experience on Instagram, leading to a bombardment of messages from families and friends of victims desperate for updates.
“The truth is, we honestly don’t know how many are dead,” Borges told CNN. “Everyone wants to know what is happening, and it’s just difficult to give out information in our capacity [as volunteers].”
In his recent Instagram posts, Borges wrote that he had no specific information about survivors and that he would not post any names, encouraging those following him to wait for more information from authorities.
“What I can do is just share what I see,” Borges said about his Instagram posts. “It’s what us volunteers are seeing, not specifics about people.”
“Like a war": Woman rushes to coastal city to search for her father
Devastated family members in the Venezuelan coastal city of Caraballeda continue to search through rubble hoping to find loved ones a day after the devastating earthquakes.
Orianna Velásquez, who lives in Caracas, told CNN she traveled to Carabelleda on Thursday morning to search for her father. She described the damage as resembling a war zone.
“I hadn’t expected it to be like that,” she said, adding that “everything looks like it was from a war.”
Velásquez said she saw multiple bodies while searching for her father.
In footage she shared with CNN, the building where her father’s home is in appeared to have fully collapsed. Volunteer rescuers were seen sifting through wreckage.
“Never in my life did I imagine this would happen, nor have I experienced anything like it. Without a doubt, it is the most devastating thing I have ever gone through,” Velásquez said.
She has not been able to find her father and said her search will continue tomorrow morning.
"My soul is shattered": Venezuelans in Argentina pray for loved ones
Hundreds of Venezuelans living in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires have attended a special Catholic mass to pray for the victims of the earthquakes. A Venezuelan flag was placed in the steps of the altar while some seated in pews teared up during the prayers.
“My soul is shattered. My people are safe, fortunately, but we cannot think only about our own people” Tania Mendez, a Venezuelan living in the Argentine capital for a decade, told Reuters.
“I know there is a country that is crying, that is suffering right now and that needs us. Whatever little or much we can give, it needs it. Right now, prayer is what I can offer,” she added.
Voices of desperation in Venezuela as residents wait for news of missing loved ones
Yamileth Jimenez was still grieving her father, who died three days earlier, when the earthquakes left her 19-year-old son trapped in the debris of their seven-story apartment building in La Guaira, the coastal region in Venezuela that suffered some of the worst damage.
“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” Jimenez told Reuters.
She was not alone in saying official help had been slow to arrive. In Caracas, Dayana Delgado, a mother of three, asked where the heavy machinery the government had promised was, noting that neighbors were the ones digging. “I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she told the Associated Press, of her missing 8-year-old.
In Valencia, families were stuck on the streets, unable to return home.
“We saw so many families on the streets crying with their suitcases and children,” Dariana Zambrano-Vivas, a resident, told CNN’s Elex Michaelson.
Across La Guaira, volunteers clawed through the wreckage with bare hands as families waited for word of missing relatives. Juan Alberto Mendaño, a retired schoolteacher, climbed through the rubble, past a dead body, when he spotted a woman signaling for help, the AP reported.
People looking for loved ones on Venezuela streets, aid worker tells CNN
NGO worker Claudia Manresa was at a mall with a colleague and her dog in the Chacao municipality in Caracas when two earthquakes hit Venezuela.
Recounting the terrifying moment, Manresa said a large wall of glass collapsed behind them as shoppers and diners tried to find cover.
She added that in the aftermath of the earthquakes, there were electricity shortage problems and people were desperately trying to contact their loved ones. Several unofficial websites have sprung up for people to host pictures of their missing relatives.
“As a Venezuelan, this hit us really hard and it’s heartbreaking to see thousands and thousands of people injured, looking for their family members and their loved ones,” said Manresa, who is a regional leader and compliance manager for Project HOPE.
Manresa added that Wednesday was a national holiday in Venezuela, and many people might have traveled to La Guiara to spend their time on the beach when the devastating twin earthquakes hit.
Japanese NGO sending team to Venezuela says first 72 hours is vital
A small team from Peace Winds Japan, a non-governmental organization that provides emergency humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and reconstruction support to crisis-affected areas, is on its way to Venezuela, planning to travel through various countries.
Peace Winds spokesperson Manami Yokokawa told CNN that “when a disaster strikes, there’s a so-called ‘72-hour window’ which is critical. In disaster rescue operations, it’s extremely important to determine how many lives can be saved within that 72-hour period.”
Yokokawa said that when people are trapped in collapsed buildings, “there’s a high probability they’ll lose their lives if more than 72 hours pass.”
Twin quakes hit Venezuela shortly after 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, so rescuers are still working within the 72-hour window.
Yokokawa said Peace Winds would also join relief efforts after the 72-hour period, because “it’s likely that damage has occurred in various places on the ground—such as hospitals and infrastructure—so we’ll need to provide assistance once we’ve assessed the extent of the damage.”
The quakes have already tested Venezuela’s health system, which has been undergoing a long crisis due to years of deterioration and lack of investment. First images showed overwhelmed hospitals, with improvised wards in hallways and even on the street due to the large number of wounded.
US military are on the ground in Venezuela for quake relief – just months after seizing its leader
A Marine Corps general arrived in Caracas on Thursday to help lead the US military’s earthquake relief effort in Venezuela – where, barely six months ago, US special forces conducted a deadly raid to seize President Nicolás Maduro.
Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard, the senior Southern Command official on the ground, will “plan, coordinate, and direct” the flow of rescue teams, equipment and aid into the hardest-hit areas, the military said. US aircraft are ferrying search crews and supplies alongside State Department personnel leading the broader response.
Southern Command, which oversees US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it was “surging” forces into the region at the interim government’s request.
Former foes: The military cooperation is a stark illustration of the recent reversal in the relationship between the US and Venezuela.
In January, US forces stormed Caracas, descending on the Fort Tiuna military complex under heavy fire and seizing Maduro and his wife in a raid that ended more than a decade of his rule.
Multiple people were killed in that operation, including Venezuelan soldiers and many of Maduro’s Cuban bodyguards. No US personnel were killed.
US President Donald Trump has vowed to ramp up help to Venezuela following Thursday’s quake.
“We took over Venezuela in less than one day, and the oil is flowing, and we’re getting along with them great,” Trump said in remarks from the Rose Garden Thursday evening.
Venezuelans in earthquake zone face a second night on the streets
Many Venezuelans in the areas affected by Wednesday’s devastating twin earthquakes are facing a second night out on the streets as rescuers race to find those still missing.
Residents whose homes were flattened or badly damaged have nowhere to go, and many people continue to stay outside in the port city of La Guaira, the capital Caracas and surrounding areas.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Wednesday that citizens have gathered in public spaces and are unable to return home.
“There is no services at all in some parts of town, especially La Guaira,” MSF’s medical coordinator in Venezuela, Halima Husein, said in a voice note shared with CNN on Wednesday. “The people are just in the streets because many buildings just fall apart.”
CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite and Charlotte Reck contributed reporting.
There is a "golden" window to save survivors of a quake. How long can people survive in the rubble?
It has now been more than 28 hours since Venezuela was hit by its strongest earthquake in more than a century.
Historically, the first 48 to 72 hours after a quake are widely regarded as the “golden” window to reach people buried alive under rubble - after that period the chances of survival without a water source diminishes rapidly.
Some studies say the majority of live rescues happen within the first five or six days.
Some rescue teams follow a “rule of fours,” which assumes that trapped people can survive four minutes without air, four days without water and four weeks without food.
But research suggests that “rigid, universal timeframes” may be inaccurate, as survival can be extended under rare conditions.
In the aftermath of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in 2023, people continued to be pulled from the rubble alive 10 days after the quake, defying expectations for survival.
Emergency and disaster experts say several factors can increase chances of survival after the “golden” window, including whether those trapped have access to oxygen, water and food.
The state of a person’s health is also key, including whether they have minor injuries versus a major injury to the internal organs. And those with pre-existing medical conditions – who may be unable to access their medication or whose medication includes side effects such as dehydration – have a lower likelihood of survival, according to medical experts.
Summer conditions are hot and dry in northern Venezuela, which could heighten the risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion among trapped people.
Man desperately searching for brother says quake "destroyed everything for us"
More than 24 hours after the earthquakes hit Venezuela, La Guaria resident Cesar Valecillos continues searching for his brother, Carlos Perdomo, who he believes is trapped under one of the several collapsed buildings in the Urbanismo Hugo Chavez housing complex in Catia La Mar, a city just west of Caracas’ main international airport.
Valecillos said the Civil Guard have yet to send teams to help and that his family and neighbors have been trying to clear the rubble themselves.
With his own home in the same complex which was destroyed, Valencillos is now staying with relatives who are also helping him search for his brother.
The brothers’ aunt, Maribel Sanchez, added that they are unsure of Perdomo’s exact location because his cellphone’s last known location was pinged at a nearby building that also collapsed.
Valencillos said he does not blame anyone specifically for the extensive damage or delayed help, acknowledging that his country was simply not ready to handle a massive natural disaster.
Panamanians rush to donate food and other supplies
People in Panama have been rushing to donate supplies to Venezuela, part of a surge across Latin America to help the stricken nation.
Reuters video showed people unloading food and supplies from their cars outside Panama City Hall. Several donation centers have been set up by authorities.
“Despite the rain, they keep arriving, and we have a team of volunteers here, both Venezuelans and Panamanians, helping to receive the goods, separate them, sort them, pack them and make bundles, so that as soon as we are told, we can send them on the first humanitarian flights to Venezuela,” she added.
In pictures: Relief efforts underway in Venezuela and abroad
In the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, governments and aid organizations have begun mobilizing to support relief efforts.
Access to information in Venezuela remains a challenge as the ban on X is partially lifted
The nearly two-year ban on X in Venezuela has been partially lifted, according to VE sin Filtro, a Venezuelan organization that monitors internet freedom.
For context: Venezuela has one of the most restricted media landscapes in the world, making it difficult for residents or concerned loved ones abroad to gain information about damage or casualties from the earthquakes.
More than 200 websites in the country are blocked, including local and international news, social media sites and censorship circumvention tools like VPNs, according to a June 25 update from VE sin Filtro.
The partial lifting of the ban on X comes after the United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela urged the authorities to “fully restore access to social networks and all media outlets.”
