Venezuela's information ministry announced Friday that the official death toll from the June 24 twin earthquakes has reached 2,645 fatalities. The figure represents a substantial increase from the 1,719 deaths reported earlier this week, with over 12,666 people injured and more than 15,000 homeless following the collapse of approximately 250 buildings across coastal zones.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the updated casualty figures as rescue teams from 27 countries continue search operations across affected regions. Over 6,462 people have been rescued since the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck in rapid succession on June 24, representing the most severe seismic disaster in Venezuela in the last 100 years. The escalating toll underscores the challenge of assessing damage across isolated coastal communities where infrastructure collapse has hampered communication and access.
Latest rescue operations and damage assessment
The updated death toll emerges as rescue operations enter their eleventh day since the earthquake sequence struck near Morón in Carabobo state. Eight hospitals are among the 250 structures that collapsed, severely limiting medical response capacity in the hardest-hit areas. The shallow depth of the earthquakes—occurring at 13 and 10 kilometers respectively—combined with Venezuela's vulnerable building stock contributed to extensive structural failures across coastal provinces.
International rescue coordination has expanded significantly since initial response operations, with teams from 27 countries now operating in affected zones. The multinational effort represents one of the largest disaster response deployments in Latin America in recent years, necessitated by Venezuela's degraded institutional capacity for conducting large-scale emergency operations across dispersed coastal settlements.
Members are reading: How infrastructure failures delayed accurate casualty assessment across isolated coastal zones
Humanitarian crisis continues
The 15,000 people rendered homeless face prolonged displacement as Venezuela lacks resources for rapid reconstruction. Thousands of structures that did not collapse may be structurally compromised, requiring demolition or expensive seismic retrofitting beyond current government capacity. The disaster compounds Venezuela's existing humanitarian challenges, creating displacement pressures in a country that has already experienced over seven million emigrants since 2015. The full scope of the humanitarian crisis will become clearer in coming weeks as damage assessments conclude and reconstruction needs are quantified.
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