CARACUS, June 26 — Venezuela earthquake — Venezuela was rocked by a devastating pair of earthquakes in the space of less than a single minute on June 24, with the twin tremors measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude respectively causing catastrophic damage across the capital Caracas and prompting warnings from the United States Geological Survey that the final death toll could reach between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
Both earthquakes were centred near Montalbán in northern Venezuela, approximately 160 kilometres west of Caracas, at a depth of around 10 kilometres below the Earth’s surface. The Venezuela earthquake struck during a public holiday, with many residents at home and largely unprepared for the sudden and violent ground movement. Emergency services were rapidly deployed to dozens of sites across Caracas where buildings had collapsed, with rescue teams working through the night to reach those trapped beneath the rubble.
The San Bernardino neighbourhood of Caracas was among the areas most severely affected, with a number of multi-storey buildings having completely collapsed. Authorities in the municipality of Chaacao, near Caracas, confirmed that two buildings in their area had been brought down by the tremors, with 18 people rescued from the rubble and more than 500 government workers engaged in ongoing search and rescue operations. The international airport near Caracas sustained interior damage, adding logistical complexity to the incoming relief effort.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez addressed the Venezuelan nation on live television, formally declaring a state of emergency and suspending all non-essential activities as the government moved to focus national resources on the disaster response. She appealed for unity and calm, and announced that schools across the country would be closed until further notice. Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, confirmed that multiple cities had been affected and that building collapses had been recorded in the eastern districts of Caracas.
The US Geological Survey’s red alert for the Venezuela earthquake estimated economic damage at between two and 20 percent of GDP, and projected a death toll that represented a stark contrast to the official figure of 164 confirmed deaths and 971 injuries. A tsunami warning was issued for coastal communities within 300 kilometres of the epicentre, prompting coastal evacuations that added to the overall scale of the humanitarian challenge facing Venezuelan authorities.
The Venezuela earthquake did not occur in isolation. Within the same seven-hour window, strong earthquakes were also recorded in northern California in the United States and off the coast of Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan, where tremors were revised upward to magnitude 7.7, generating their own tsunami warning and significant disruption to transport infrastructure, including the suspension of the Tohoku Shinkansen.