Here's the latest
• Rescue efforts: Rescuers are continuing to search for survivors of this week’s devastating earthquakes in Venezuela as the clock ticks down on the “golden window” to save those trapped in the rubble. At least 920 people are dead, according to the country’s top lawmaker.
• Medical concerns: Hospitals are struggling to treat the injured amid decades of neglect in Venezuela’s healthcare system. Some residents are calling for civilian volunteers to help clear debris, frustrated by the slow pace of the rescue operations.
• Global response: US Southern Command said it “stands with the people of Venezuela” after its personnel and the US Chargé d’Affaires in the country met Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez. Many countries and global organizations have pledged support and aid.
• Here’s how you can help earthquake victims.
Catch up on the latest as rescuers race to recover earthquake survivors
Days after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, rescuers continue their search for survivors in the debris.
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.
As the race against time continues for search and recovery efforts, catch up on the latest:
- Constant aftershocks and a lack of heavy machinery are slowing search and recovery operations in critical areas, while entire communities continue to clear debris on their own. Nonetheless, survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the Caraballeda area of Venezuela’s hard-hit La Guaira state, eyewitness video shows. At least 172 people are trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez said on Friday.
- Satellite imagery illustrates the devastation in coastal cities that were among the most heavily impacted by Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes. Images of Caraballeda, a town in the state of La Guaira, show more than 100 partially or fully collapsed buildings.
- The response to the earthquakes in Venezuela will be a long-term undertaking, according to Elinor Raikes, the vice president and head of program delivery at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Specialized teams from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and other countries began mobilizing toward Venezuela in coordination with local authorities and the United Nations.
- US Southern Command “stands with the people of Venezuela” it said after its personnel and the US Chargé d’Affaires in the country met Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
CNN’s Xiaoqian Lin, Helen Regan, Thomas Bordeaux, Rory Fleming, Hira Humayun, Osmary Hernández and Rocío Muñoz-Ledo contributed reporting.
Salvadoran rescuers free girl trapped under rubble in La Guaira state, Bukele says
Rescue workers from El Salvador have successfully freed a 15-year-old girl and her dog who were trapped inside a collapsed building in the city of Catia La Mar, La Guaira, according to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Rescuers had to “break through several walls” to reach Camila Sofía Medina Rivas and her dog Chanel on the ninth floor of the building, Bukele previously said.
“We have rescued Camila!” Bukele posted on X, alongside a video of the girl being carried on a stretcher by several rescue workers.
The footage shows her making a heart sign with her hands, while wearing an oxygen mask, and waving to the crowd gathered outside the building.
He also shared an audio clip purportedly of a conversation between Camila and a rescuer.
“We are here to do everything we can to help you,” the rescuer can be heard saying, after Camila told him she could only move her legs in the tiny space in which she was trapped.
“We want you to stay energized, so you can help us making all the noises you can make.”
“OK!” Camila shouted back.
For context: El Salvador is among the many countries who have sent rescue teams to assist Venezuela in the short window of time when those trapped in the rubble can be saved.
Aerial footage shows extent of destruction caused in La Guaira by earthquakes
La Guaira state is the Venezuelan area hardest hit by Wednesday’s devastating earthquakes.
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez asked the public yesterday to avoid the area so as to not hinder rescue efforts during “the most critical hours.”
US Southern Command says it "stands with" people of Venezuela
US Southern Command “stands with the people of Venezuela” it said after its personnel and the US Chargé d’Affaires in the country met Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
Southern Command, which oversees US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, posted a photo of the meeting on X on Friday local time. The US is “rapidly surging critical capabilities to support earthquake relief operations and help save lives,” at the request of Venezuela, it added.
A statement from Venezuela’s Presidency said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss rescue operations for survivors and the channeling of humanitarian aid.
Central Command previously said it was “surging” forces into the region at the interim government’s request.
The military cooperation is a stark illustration of the recent reversal in the relationship between the US and Venezuela. Barely six months ago, US special forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas in a daring and deadly raid.
Mauricio Torres contributed reporting.
The Venezuelan coastal state hardest hit by the earthquakes
In Venezuela’s coastal state of La Guaira, which was hardest hit in the massive twin earthquakes on Wednesday, residents said they spent the night awake and reported that several people remained trapped in the rubble after severe damage to dozens of apartment buildings.
“We felt the jolt, so to speak — the start of the earthquake. And it was very strong … we gathered out here and saw all the damage,” local resident José Terraza, 68, told journalists on the ground working on behalf of CNN.
The buildings across the way from his home in Playa Grande collapsed, but his apartment building is still standing. Residents spent the long night outside, with whatever belongings they managed to grab, as they feared possible aftershocks.
Cries of family members calling out for their missing loved ones pierce the air.
Video on Venezuelan state television showed buildings missing facades, tilted on their foundations. What was left of other buildings were buried under piles of their own debris. Other video showed massive piles of debris as people climbed and searched around the colossal heaps. Other buildings were seen entirely crumbled on the ground.
Smashed windows, broken pipes and slabs of concrete lay amid stuffed animals, clothes and shoes. Some satellite images even show evidence of fire damage, consistent with reports of firefighters supporting the emergency response.
Read our full report here.
Why the Caribbean is prone to earthquakes
Countries around the Caribbean Sea are vulnerable to major earthquakes because of the tectonic plates in the region.
Earthquakes are measured by magnitude on a logarithmic scale — so each whole number increase translates to 32 times more energy released by the quake. This means the second 7.5 magnitude quake that hit Venezuela on Wednesday actually twice as large as the first, which had a magnitude of 7.2 and happened about 40 seconds earlier.
In pictures: Venezuela quake rescue operations continue overnight
Days after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, rescuers continue their search for survivors in the debris. At least 172 people are trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez said on Friday.
Terrain and aftershocks create challenges for rescuers who are racing against the clock
Given the scale of the disaster, specialized teams from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and other countries began mobilizing toward Venezuela in coordination with local authorities and the United Nations.
The terrain, however, remains challenging. Constant aftershocks and a lack of heavy machinery are slowing operations in critical areas, while entire communities continue to clear debris on their own.
Humanitarian workers who personally experienced the earthquake have had to reorganize to respond to the emergency, balancing professional responsibilities with concern for their loved ones. Some even spent the night outdoors, fearing further collapses.
Their teams, Donnelly said, have begun focusing on immediate aid: food, water, shelter and health risk assessments in areas where people have been displaced.
Earthquake response will be "a monthslong, not weekslong response," says IRC official
The response to the earthquakes in Venezuela will be a long-term undertaking, according to Elinor Raikes, the vice president and head of program delivery at the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Raikes told Reuters that with the significant damage the country sustained, her organization is looking at ways to shore up public services and deliver essential relief items.
Raikes said mobilizing aid is a challenge given the state of infrastructure in Venezuela. With the country’s main airport damaged, it’s difficult to get the supplies to scale. The IRC has aid supplies in neighboring Colombia but needs airport access to get it into Venezuela.
In the next few days, Raikes said IRC teams will focus on getting basic necessities like food, water and shelter to those who need it, and to deliver medical supplies to health services.
CNN has also reported that hospitals in Venezuela are facing a shortage of crucial supplies like water, antibiotics, IV solution, anesthetics and paper bed sheets, a Caracas pediatrician, Dr. Huniades Urbina-Medina, said.
He added that at least two hospitals – one in Caracas and one in La Guaira – have collapsed due to the quakes and that that the hospitals’ structures were old and were not well maintained.
Satellite images show scale of quake destruction along Venezuelan coast
Satellite imagery illustrates the devastation in coastal cities that were among the most heavily impacted by Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes.
Images of Caraballeda, a town in the state of La Guaira, show more than 100 partially or fully collapsed buildings.
In the city of Catia La Mar, people can be seen living outside, with temporary structures set up on a baseball field. Many Venezuelans lost their homes in the quakes and have nowhere else to go, while others told CNN they are not returning to damaged buildings for fear of further collapse.
The "golden window" to save earthquake survivors
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.
Survivors found in earthquake rubble in La Guaira
Video shows survivors pulled from earthquake rubble in the Caraballeda area of Venezuela’s hard-hit La Guaira state.
Survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the Caraballeda area of Venezuela’s hard-hit La Guaira state, eyewitness video shows.
Video from Driscol Rojas, who describes himself as a filmmaker, shows mounds of rubble in Caraballeda. As survivors are pulled out, Rojas is heard asking their names. He says one person was successfully pulled out from the remains of a six-story building and that many people in the area have died.
Venezuelan digs through quake rubble with shovel and pickaxe in search for family members
Armed with only gloves, a shovel and a pickaxe, Simon Medina dug through debris in La Guaira, hoping to find his mother and brother who he says were in an apartment building when the twin earthquakes struck Venezuela.
When the tremors happened on Wednesday, Medina was in Naiguata, a city about 14 miles (23 kilometers) away. He arrived in La Guaira with relatives to search for his loved ones.
“It shook there too, but I did not know it had been that strong,” he said. “It is frightening to come across a situation like this, with your relatives inside the house.”
Some context: The Venezuelan government has launched a major search and rescue operation, with international teams beginning to join the effort on Friday. However, in some areas, there are complaints that there is still insufficient personnel to accelerate the search.
In the coastal area of Catia La Mar, CNN witnessed a group of people calling for civilian volunteers to go in with “pickaxes and shovels” to help clear debris.
Earlier, near the Simon Bolivar International Airport — an area also heavily impacted by the quakes — residents complained of delays in resuming rescue operations. There are also calls for assistance in recovering the bodies of the deceased from the rubble.
CNN has contacted the Venezuelan government regarding this situation and is awaiting a response.
Race against time to find Venezuela quake survivors as death toll tops 900
The death toll from the twin earthquakes in Venezuela has soared to at least 920 as rescuers race against time to pull survivors from debris.
At least 172 people remain trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said.
Where things stand:
- Several Venezuelan soccer players were among those killed in the earthquakes, the Venezuelan national team and the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) said Friday. The partner of another player, Héctor Bello, died while protecting their toddler, he said on social media.
- La Guaira, the hardest-hit area, is fully militarized as officials urge the public not to travel there. Eyewitness video shows survivors being pulled from the rubble in the Caraballeda area of La Guaira state. Satellite imagery illustrates the devastation in coastal cities, showing collapsed buildings and people living outside.
- US Southern Command said it “stands with the people of Venezuela” after its personnel and the US Chargé d’Affaires in the country met Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez. Many countries and global organizations have pledged support and aid.
- 13 hospitals across Venezuela were damaged in the earthquakes, and one in Caracas reported a high influx of patients and donations. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said it donated emergency trauma kits to hospitals in Caracas and La Guaira. Hospitals are facing a shortage of crucial supplies like water, antibiotics, IV solution, anesthetics and paper bed sheets, a pediatrician told CNN.
- The response to the earthquakes in Venezuela will take months, not weeks, said Elinor Raikes, the vice president and head of program delivery at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Mobilizing aid is a challenge given the state of infrastructure in Venezuela, she said.
CNN’s Caitlin Danaher, Mauricio Torres, Uriel Blanco, Thomas Bordeaux, Hira Humayun, Rory Fleming, Matias Grez and Michael Rios contributed reporting to this post.
Hospitals struggle to treat victims of Venezuela earthquakes
Decades of neglect for the country’s healthcare system have left medics improvising as they treat victims of Wednesday’s earthquake devastation, a Venezuelan doctor warned.
“The Venezuelan healthcare system has declined progressively,” Dr. Huníades Urbina-Medina, a pediatrician and former president of Venezuela’s National Medicine Academy, told CNN.
The doctor and his colleagues have been alerting officials about this “decay” since the 1998 electoral victory of Hugo Chávez, he said.
The healthcare professional said people are flocking to hospitals where they are being treated in corridors — and where medical workers are improvising because they do not have access to the necessary resources.
“There is no way to care for them,” Urbina-Medina said. “We have no medical gases, analgesics, anaesthetics or antibiotics.”
The veteran doctor said Venezuela has faced years of shortages in everything from beds to painkillers to disposable gowns, and patients are sometimes requested to purchase their own supplies ahead of surgery.
Urbina-Medina said only proper investment can help avert healthcare shortfalls in the event of another seismic catastrophe in the future. “We need to prepare hospitals,” he said. “Renovate them according to international standards, and stock supplies for at least 72 hours.”
These are the countries who have pledged support for Venezuela so far
Various countries are deploying rescue teams to Venezuela and pledges of foreign aid are pouring in after twin earthquakes destroyed neighborhoods and devastated communities.
- A number of South American nations stepped up emergency efforts. Neighboring Colombia announced it would send humanitarian aid as well as more than 60 rescuers and four dogs.
- Chile sent a specialized unit of the Chilean fire department, USAR (Urban Search and Rescue), to Venezuela, according to Reuters.
- El Salvador dispatched 300 rescuers and paramedics, and the government said it arranged the shipment of 50 metric tons of humanitarian aid, Reuters reported. Centers were also established in Panama for residents to donate supplies.
- Authorities in Cuba and the Dominican Republic sent emergency staffers and health supplies to Venezuela, according to Reuters and local officials.
- The United States is deploying elite rescue teams, medical resources and humanitarian assistance. 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.
- Mexico sent two Mexican Air Force transport planes carrying 261 personnel, including soldiers, air force members and National Guard troops and 2.7 tons of medical supplies, Reuters reported. A separate C-130 Hercules aircraft is expected to leave with another eight metric tons of medicine and four tons of rescue materials.
- Peru has dispatched a search and rescue team and sent humanitarian aid. It also proposed a joint task force of countries in the Americas to coordinate the aid that countries around the world are sending to Venezuela.
- Across the Atlantic, European nations including Spain, France and the Czech Republic bolstered funding and sent dozens of firefighters engineers and rescue dogs to help locate survivors in the rubble. The European Union said it “stands ready” to mobilize assistance if it receives a request.
- Spain announced that it will send aid supplies, provide funding and deploy a field hospital. A military plane is also bringing 58 personnel from its search-and-rescue unit, eight canine units and 40 firefighters.
- Over in Asia, China — which has close ties to Venezuela — said it is “willing to provide assistance within its capabilities.” Chinese-funded companies in Venezuela have already mobilized to help with rescue and clean-up operations.
- Japanese nongovernmental organization Peace Winds, which provides disaster relief and reconstruction support to crisis-affected areas, is also on its way.
- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei announced “readiness” to provide assistance in relief and rescue operations. And India’s external affairs minister announced the transportation of more than 35 tons of relief supplies, medicine and medical equipment
CNN’s Duarte Mendonca, Magdalena Vitores Moreno, Ivana Kottasová and Lauren Kent contributed to this report.
