Symbolic imageVenezuela raises earthquake death toll to 6,125
Venezuela's National Assembly put the confirmed death toll from the June earthquakes at 6,125 in a bulletin published on Monday. Criticism of the government's relief effort is growing.
What happened
- Two tremors of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit on the evening of Wednesday, 24 June, about 40 seconds apart.
- Their epicentres lay about 10 km apart in Yaracuy state; more than 1,500 aftershocks followed, TASS reports.
- The coastal state of La Guaira and the capital Caracas were hit hardest, according to Al Jazeera.
- The bulletin lists 6,462 people pulled alive from the rubble and about 61,000 treated in hospitals.
- Inspectors assessed 43,679 structures, 41,624 of them damaged; 287 housing units went to people left homeless.
The view from outside
Al Jazeera cites a World Bank report putting physical damage at nearly $20bn and notes that, despite pledges of support from abroad, it remains unclear where the money would come from. TASS reproduces the bulletin's figures without reference to the criticism of the response.
What could happen next
- Financing of reconstruction is unresolved: foreign pledges made after the quakes have not been matched to actual sources of funds.
- Advocates want the US sanctions still in force from Maduro's tenure loosened or cancelled to ease money flows.
- La Guaira's governor counted 1,338 people still missing on Friday; the weekly bulletin gives no figure for the missing.
- Rodríguez says 16.5 percent of debris has been removed; no recovery timetable has been published.
How the camps see it
Venezuelan government: Publishes weekly tallies of dead, rescued, treated and inspected buildings as evidence that relief and assessment work is advancing.
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