Venezuela Quake Disaster Tops 5,000 Deaths As 50,000 Remain Missing
Venezuela's official death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 has surpassed 5,000 and could climb much higher.
New footage of the June 24th earthquake in La Guaira shows multiple buildings collapsing #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/hq1ywikhpA
— CNW (@ConflictsW) July 11, 2026
Poorly constructed multifamily housing complexes, built with low-quality materials under the socialist government's mass-housing programs, collapsed "like sandcastles" when the quakes hit the coastal state of La Guaira.
The devastating earthquakes in Venezuela exposed exactly how the socialist government built housing for their people. Look at this video from La Guaira.
— Maila Maria Rosa (@MailaMariaRosa) June 28, 2026
The buildings in the Misión Vivienda program were constructed using expanded polystyrene (EPS) panels coated with a thin layer… pic.twitter.com/N4qLX7W3Xa
The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes struck within seconds of each other, devastating Chávez-era socialist housing projects in La Guaira and reducing buildings to rubble.
As the Spanish daily newspaper ABC recently reported, "The explanation given by engineers and construction specialists is that low-quality materials were used in the Chavista Housing Mission, without supervision and without the application of anti-seismic standards."
Aerial footage shows the widespread destruction across La Guaira, Venezuela.
— Resist the Mainstream (@ResisttheMS) June 25, 2026
pic.twitter.com/KVUrstkx97
Local authorities reported 16,740 injuries and said that more than 6,400 people had been rescued from the rubble. The death toll surpassed 5,000 on Friday, while the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people remain missing.
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— CEPR (@ceprdc) July 17, 2026
The UN estimates as many as 50,000 people may still be missing. Nearly 17,000 are wounded, and more than 21,000 are living in shelters. Recovery could cost $37 billion — while Venezuela's own funds sit frozen abroad.
On Friday, acting President Delcy Rodríguez said that Venezuela has drawn on $346 million of its own reserves at the International Monetary Fund to begin reconstruction projects in the quake-ravaged region.
"My heart is with the people of Venezuela," IMF's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a post on X.
Supporting ongoing disaster relief efforts, the US military has shifted ships, rotary-wing aircraft, cargo planes, and amphibious landing craft to deliver vital supplies directly to damaged coastal infrastructure.
Racing the clock and clearing bottlenecks to help save lives in Venezuela:
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) July 17, 2026
Since mobilizing to Simón Bolívar International Airport in the aftermath of the earthquakes, the @usairforce Contingency Response Element (CRE) has been vital in accelerating the flow of critical relief… pic.twitter.com/pfIgvmFx8N
US military forces supporting Venezuela's disaster response are helping stabilize the country after the devastating quake.
Still, the deployment is notable: US troops are now positioned inside Venezuela just as US military activity around Cuba could intensify, amid rumors of a potential invasion (read here).