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• Get the latest on the quakes in Venezuela here.
• Here’s how you can help earthquake victims.
Key developments
• Death toll climbs: At least 1,450 people have died since last week’s devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. CNN is on the ground in La Guaira and Caracas, where teams are digging through the rubble as part of frantic rescue efforts.
• Glimmers of hope: Search efforts have provided some moments of jubilation, including the rescue of an infant and a woman trapped for over three days. Officials are hoping a surge of foreign aid and responders will bolster emergency workers and help address humanitarian needs.
• Struggling institutions: Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has announced a commission to assess the damage. The disaster has compounded issues from years of economic and political strife, particularly for the overwhelmed healthcare system.
Search dogs essential in rescue operations, Spanish Armed Forces says
As emergency responders urgently comb through rubble in search of survivors, their canine partners are playing a critical role.
“Our dogs and their handlers form an essential team for (urban search and rescue) missions in collapsed structures,” the Emergency Military Unit of the Spanish Armed Forces said in an Instagram post.
Rescue workers continue to search through the rubble three days after earthquakes struck Venezuela. CNN’s Mary Triny Mena reports.
The post included a video of search dogs and their handlers navigating damaged buildings, including crawling under broken beams and into tight spaces.
Countries around the world have sent 2,624 rescue workers and 137 search dogs, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said on Sunday.
Earlier in the weekend, rescue workers from El Salvador successfully freed a 15-year-old girl and her dog trapped inside a collapsed building in the city of Catia La Mar in La Guaira.
Rodríguez announces commission to assess quake-damaged homes and extends school closures
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez announced on Sunday the creation of a presidential commission to assess the condition of housing and infrastructure damaged by the powerful earthquakes that struck the South American country, and extended school closures for another week.
“This presidential commission is already working to verify habitability conditions, to determine whether people can safely return to their homes,” Rodríguez said during a broadcast on state television channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
The acting president said the commission will be headed by engineer Francisco Garcés and will include public institutions, engineering organizations, and universities.
Rodríguez also explained that authorities will use a traffic light system — green, yellow, and red — to classify the safety of homes.
“There is still a lot of fear among those whose homes were affected, but there are external signs that do not necessarily match structural damage,” she added.
Rodríguez, who assumed office after Nicolás Maduro was captured by the United States last January, also announced the creation of a “task force” responsible for establishing temporary camps for those who lost their homes and for planning housing reconstruction projects “in a very short timeframe.”
The commission will be chaired by her brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez.
In La Guaira, the area hardest hit by the earthquakes, Rodríguez said electricity service has been restored by 75%, potable water by 68%, and road infrastructure by 90%.
CNN team witnesses rescue from La Guaira rubble
A CNN team on the ground in Venezuela witnessed the moment a person was rescued from the rubble of a building in the hard-hit coastal city of La Guaira.
Onlookers were silent as a human chain of civil defense workers and volunteers carefully extracted the person from within the ruins. One worker raised his fist when he saw the victim – indicating that the person rescued is alive. They were quickly given an IV and shuttled into a waiting ambulance for further medical attention.
The relief was palpable among rescue workers and bystanders alike. The window for finding survivors in the ruins is closing fast more than four days after the devastating earthquakes. One man, Hernán Sandoval, said he’s spent two straight days digging, trying to find his “children, nephews, and other family members.”
“Venezuela was not prepared for this. We were not even prepared for a flu, honestly,” Sandoval said. “We are still here, continuing to dig, hoping to find any body or any sign. But faith is the last thing you lose.”
Venezuelan earthquake victim rescued after being trapped for 86 hours
Rescuers pulled a woman alive in Venezuela after she was trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, for more than three days, according to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Video of the rescue purportedly showed rescuers taking the woman out of the rubble on a stretcher and moving her onto an ambulance. A helicopter is later seen taking off.
“Although our doctors stabilized Belkys at the camp, her health condition remains delicate. For this reason, we hired a private helicopter and transferred her to a private clinic in Caracas, where she is now receiving the best possible care,” Bukele added, thanking Salvadorian and Peruvian rescuers.
Earlier on Saturday, Bukele shared video reportedly showing the moment a Salvadorian rescuer located Barreto in Caraballeda. The rescuer was heard reassuring her that help was on the way.
Rescue teams in La Guaira are listening carefully for signs of life
Rescue workers from Fairfax County, Virginia, listened intently on Sunday for any sign of life amid the rubble of a multi-story building in La Guaira, Venezuela. They heard two distinct taps – what they believe is the sound of someone trapped under the collapsed structure.
Nobody nearby dared speak or shout. Listening for survivors requires near-total silence, and time is running out more than three days after the two intensely destructive earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks. The 72-hour period after a disaster like this is generally considered the “golden window” for rescue. The chance of finding survivors alive in the rubble is now extremely slim.
Miracles do happen, however, with an 11-month-old baby was pulled from under the ruins of a building on Saturday. That rescue has given La Guaira reason to hope, but older residents remember the traumatic events of December 1999, when thousands disappeared after the state was hit by intense flooding and mudslides. In the wake of that tragedy, it took months for the scale of destruction to reveal itself, and the Venezuelan government never released an official death toll.
Photos: Searches continue as families desperately await word on loved ones
Nearly four full days since twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, search and rescue teams continue to sift through rubble from collapsed and damaged buildings.
There have been occasional moments of relief and jubilation in the exhausting emergency response, including earlier Sunday when US firefighters from Fairfax County, Virginia, were able to assist in rescuing a father and son in La Guaira.
But many other families are growing frustrated with the lack of heavy machinery and speedy government response as they endure an agonizing wait for word on loved ones.
These were more of the scenes on the ground today:
Maduro sends Bible verses and greetings to Venezuela's earthquake-affected, in post on X
Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro released a message on social media Sunday, purportedly written from his jail cell in Brooklyn, sending solidarity back home as his country continues its post-earthquake recovery.
“Cilia and I lift our prayers for those who have died, for the injured, for the missing, for their families, and for all those who continue fighting, minute by minute, to save lives,” Maduro said in the post, referring to his wife Cilia Flores, who is also incarcerated on drug trafficking charges. The two were summarily captured in an unprecedented raid by the US earlier this year.
Maduro then quoted from the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, including the verse, “‘When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
It is not clear whether Maduro dictated the message to his team or approved its content.
Here's the latest on the humanitarian response in Venezuela
As Venezuelan first responders, civilian volunteers and rescue teams from around the world continue to search through the rubble, an evolving humanitarian response is trying to meet the needs of survivors in hard-hit areas.
At least 1,450 people are confirmed dead, according to a Sunday update from National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who said 3,150 others are injured. At least 12,721 people have lost their homes.
According to UNICEF, about 680,000 children are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance. Aid groups have also highlighted the need for psychological care.
Here’s a roundup of some of the latest relief efforts:
- Peru’s Ministry of Defense said it sent more than 14 tons of humanitarian aid to support affected families.
- Thirty-two specially trained military personnel were sent from Paraguay to help the search and rescue effort. Defense Minister Óscar González said the recent severing of diplomatic relations with Venezuela did not pose “any obstacle” in coordinating the aid.
- US Southern Command said it was sending a specialized Air Force response team to help Venezuela restore operations at its damaged airport.
- Venezuela’s government is launching a blood drive to help increase reserves at hospitals that have been overwhelmed by earthquake victims. The drive will be centered at Dr. Domingo Luciani Hospital and the Chacao Blood Center.
- Starlink announced that the company is offering free internet access to Movistar customers in La Guaria state, and is working to also provide service to Digitel and Movilnet customers as soon as possible. The US has been working to get more Starlink terminals into the country.
CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Laura Sharman and Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.
US communities organize aid relief in response to deadly quakes
Donation drives are kicking off across the country to provide aid to Venezuela after back-to-back deadly earthquakes hit the country on Wednesday.
Little Caracas, a Venezuelan American neighborhood in Queens, New York, is one of about 20 donation locations throughout the entire Tri-State.
Volunteers have been participating in assembly lines in the community, making care packages to be shipped to South America.
It doesn’t stop there. Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles are also among the many cities coming together to collect aid for victims affected by the massive quakes.
Ruben Navarro, CEO of Atlanta’s nonprofit Neighbors Connect, said these support efforts will be an ongoing responsibility.
“It’s not about one week or two weeks, you know, thinking the long run for a couple months,” Navarro told CNN affiliate WUPA.
Medical supplies are paramount, Navarro said. “Second, you know, personal hygiene, and third, you know, food that isn’t going to expire. You know, cans, boxes.”
Neighbors Connect has about 60 locations accepting these donations across the metropolitan area.
Hundreds of other nonprofits, businesses and local communities across the US are also looking for bedding, portable power sources, clothes and toiletries.
“For many years, we have been maybe divided for different politicians’ situations,” volunteer Amelia Rodriguez told CNN affiliate WABC. “The people is just trying to give a change for Venezuela… now everyone is together no matter what.”
At least 1,450 dead from Venezuela earthquakes, top lawmaker says
At least 1,450 people are confirmed dead following the two earthquakes that rocked Venezuela last week, according to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez in a televised address on Sunday. The lawmaker added that 3,150 people have been injured.
“We are in critical hours, in crucial hours, to continue to save lives,” Rodríguez said.
Rodríguez, the brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, reported that 12,721 people have been displaced by the earthquakes and 774 buildings have been damaged or collapsed, including hospitals.
Rodríguez thanked the international community for the aid sent, including 2,624 rescue workers and 137 search dogs.
Argentine soccer player loses wife, 2 children in earthquakes
An Argentine soccer player for a Venezuelan team lost his wife and two children in last week’s deadly earthquakes, according to a social media post from La Guaira Maritime Sports Club.
Athlete Lucas Trejo had spent much of the last three days searching for his wife Yanina and his children Aaron and Ainhoa amid the rubble of La Guaira, Venezuela, where he and his family lived in a waterfront apartment building.
Trejo’s brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles told CNN on Friday that “absolutely nothing” was left of the athlete’s home after the earthquake.
At least 1,430 people died in the two earthquakes that shook Venezuela last week, and thousands more are missing, according to the latest figures from the government.
Drone video shows apartment blocks reduced to rubble in La Guaira
Aerial images from La Guaira, Venezuela, reveal entire apartment blocks reduced to piles of concrete.
The footage from Friday shows the scale of damage in the coastal state, which was hardest hit by Wednesday’s twin earthquakes. Across the country, at least 1,430 people have died and thousands of others lost their homes, according to Venezuela’s top lawmaker.
Pope Leo expresses solidarity with Venezuela after deadly earthquakes
Pope Leo XIV expressed solidarity with the people of Venezuela today after Wednesday’s deadly twin earthquakes, which are so far known to have killed at least 1,430 people.
The first American pontiff also expressed his thanks and encouragement to those involved in search and rescue efforts across the country.
The pope sent €100,000 (or about $113,700) of aid to Venezuela last week following the earthquakes, according to Vatican News.
Members of Venezuelan American community search for answers from US
Venezuelan Americans are searching for answers from thousands of miles away after devasting back-to-back 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes hit Venezuela on Wednesday.
Dana Jimenez, an aid relief organizer in Houston, is from Caracas, one of the places rocked by the quakes.
“I was looking for my dad (for) 15 hours,” Jimenez told CNN affiliate KTRK. After posting pictures on social media, she made contact.
“(My dad) was able to send a voice (message) and say, ‘Hey, I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m helping other people.’”
Arnaldo Goita, owner of the Richmond, Virginia, food truck On the Grill RVA, returned from visiting his family in Venezuela two months ago.
“The room where I stayed in Caracas, where I slept, both walls came down. I have a cousin that almost lost his two daughters,” Goita told CNN affiliate WTVR.
While Jimenez and Goita have confirmed their family members are safe, not everyone has been that lucky.
Kelly Montano, owner of Full Arepas in Los Angeles, told CNN affiliate KABC that her parents were just north of Caracas during the quakes.
“They are missing. They were in one of the buildings that collapsed in La Guaira,” Montano said.
The first 48 to 72 hours are considered the most crucial for successful rescue efforts.
“By this time, almost more than 72 hours, it’s difficult to find them alive,” Montano said.
Jimenez, Goita, and Montano are collecting clothes, toiletries, baby items and non-perishable food for the victims in Venezuela.
“I don’t have time for crying,” Montano told KABC. “If we cannot help from over there, we can help from here.”
Rescue teams pull baby alive from Venezuela earthquake rubble
Video captures the incredible moment a baby was pulled alive from the rubble of a building following powerful earthquakes in Venezuela.
The infant is seen crying as it is rescued from the ruins in video footage filmed on Saturday, more than two days after the disaster occurred.
International teams join rescue efforts, as survivors located under rubble
Rescue workers from around the world have traveled to Venezuela to search for survivors more than three days after deadly twin earthquakes hit the country, killing at least 1,430 people.
Historically, the first 48 to 72 hours 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 diminish rapidly.
Rescuers were still pulling people out of debris yesterday, with preparations being made for similar attempts today.
Here’s a look at the latest:
- An 11-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble in Venezuela’s La Guaira region yesterday, hours after another boy the same age was rescued from the same region.
- Video shared by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele reportedly showed the moment a rescuer located a woman trapped under rubble. Her son confirmed that his mother was found alive yesterday.
- Venezuelans with family members still missing are calling for heavy machinery to assist the ongoing search and rescue operations.
- The European Union (EU) has mobilized €5 million (USD $5.6 million) in emergency assistance for communities affected by the earthquakes in Venezuela, the EU’s foreign affairs chief said today.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF, has said that around 680,000 children are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance following the earthquakes.
- Foreign governments have also been providing updates on their citizens who were in Venezuela at the time of the quakes. Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that at least nine Spanish nationals have died, while 131 are missing and 14 have been located beneath rubble.
CNN’s Sophie Tanno, Laura Sharman, Diego Mendoza and Pau Mosquera contributed to this post, which has been updated for additional developments.
Emergency crews running into difficulties in Caracas rescue operation
The operation to rescue people trapped in the rubble in Caracas is proving more and more difficult as time wears on.
CNN’s team on the ground in the Venezuelan capital saw dozens of rescue workers getting prepared to work again early on Sunday morning despite the rescue effort now having surpassed the crucial 72-hour window, during which, people are most likely to be saved.
Rescue workers sifting through the rubble are coming up against what’s known as a “pancake collapse”: when several collapsed floors are stacked on top of each other.
These kinds of collapses are a lot harder for rescuers to work their way through, says CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon, who has been reporting on the difficulties the teams are now facing.
Rescue workers and first responders from Mexico, Brazil and Japan have all pitched in on the effort while the United States is also sending team of military personnel to assist the rescue effort.
Visualizing the Venezuela earthquakes
Two major back-to-back earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening. More than 1,400 people have died, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said Saturday.
CNN is tracking developments, with maps, charts, and satellite imagery.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the two earthquakes were a rare phenomenon called a “doublet.” This occurs when two quakes of a similar magnitude occur in quick succession, often causing more damage than a single event.
In this case, the larger 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck only 39 seconds after a 7.2 magnitude foreshock. This marks the largest recorded earthquake in Venezuela for more than a century.
Read more of CNN’s visual analysis of the twin earthquakes here.
Venezuelans with missing family members voice frustration over lack of heavy machinery
Venezuelans with family members still missing in the powerful earthquakes that rocked the country on Wednesday night are calling for heavy machinery to assist the ongoing search and rescue operations.
At the ruins of a building in the town of Caraballeda, a woman named Ana Ancheta whose relative has not been found expressed her frustrations at the lack of machinery for teams sorting through the huge amounts of debris.
Industrial engineer Alejandro Serrano, 33, said there was a “strong smell of death” at the scene of the collapsed building. He added that machine operators who had pledged to come and help clear the rubble have yet to show up.
