Earthquake 2026

Venezuela’s devastating June 24 double earthquake has had major implications for the country’s foreign policy and geopolitical alignment. Days after the disaster, a diplomatic-military mission arrived from Israel. 

Former President Hugo Chávez severed ties with Tel Aviv in 2009. Both he and his successor Nicolás Maduro were stalwart supporters of the Palestinian cause, repeatedly excoriating Israel for its colonial occupation, war crimes, and genocide.

In contrast, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez held two public meetings with the Israeli team, which included multiple IDF officers, praised its members as “highly trained and professional,” and thanked them for their work.

Tel Aviv is poised to play an important role alongside Washington in post-earthquake reconstruction planning, while the formal reestablishment of diplomatic relations appears imminent.  In light of this tectonic geopolitical shift, we investigate the main officials and NGOs spearheading the Zionist infiltration of Venezuela.

Israeli state functionaries

Brigadier General Elad Edri was one of the highest-profile figures in the Israeli mission to Venezuela. In a July 7 meeting with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Edri was pictured presenting a slideshow titled “Project for Future Reconstruction.”

Edri, who serves as Chief of Staff of the IDF Home Front Command, reportedly led field inspections of damaged structures, provided guidance on debris removal, and eventually secured an extension of the Israeli deployment. He had previously participated in IDF missions following the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the 2017 Mexico earthquake, and the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Florida.

In his military career, Edri took part in the failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon (2006), as well as multiple “mowing-the-grass” operations in the Gaza Strip, including “Cast Lead” (2008-09) and “Protective Edge” (2014), in which Tel Aviv employed its infamous “Dahiyeh Doctrine” of carpet bombing densely populated urban centers. Chávez famously denounced “Cast Lead” as “genocide” and cut diplomatic ties in 2009. 

In 2015, Edri moved to the IDF Home Front Command which, despite presenting itself as a civil defense unit, has played an active role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in addition to shielding the settler colony as it continues its genocidal wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Edri assumed the leadership of the Home Front Command’s Rescue and Training Brigade. This unit entered Gaza in 2024 and was reported to have participated in combat operations against civilian targets. More recently, the brigadier general led preparation efforts ahead of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February.

Roni Kaplan was born in Uruguay in 1982 and relocated to Israel in 2003. After completing his mandatory military service, he has mostly served as an IDF spokesperson, particularly for Spanish-language outlets. 

Kaplan is also the founder of Huellas del Cielo and Conexión Israel, two organizations focused on fostering ties between Israel and Latin America through educational trips and pilgrimages to occupied Jerusalem.

He was one of the most visible spokespersons in the Venezuela delegation. Always in uniform, Kaplan and his team reportedly provided a “dashboard” for Venezuelan authorities to classify damaged buildings in La Guaira. In an interview with private news network Venevisión, Kaplan claimed the Israeli mission had arrived to “give hope and lend a helping hand to the Venezuelan people.”

Behind the humanitarian façade, Kaplan has spent years amplifying Tel Aviv’s Goebbelian propaganda, from blaming civilian deaths on Hamas “human shields” to pretending that Israeli bombings are “preemptive and precise.” Despite overwhelming evidence, Kaplan has denied that Israel is committing genocide and imposing mass starvation on the Palestinian people.

In May 2026, a coalition of Uruguayan social movements filed a legal complaint against the IDF official, accusing him of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The petitioners argued the country’s authorities have a responsibility to investigate Kaplan.

A career diplomat who spent part of his youth in Venezuela, Yoed Magen was the first official to announce the Israeli mission to the South American country, citing contacts with high-level figures in the Venezuelan government. The diplomatic-military team that arrived on July 1 was received by Félix Plasencia, who was later named Foreign Minister.

Magen was recently appointed as Israeli ambassador to Mexico, having previously served in Panama, Colombia, Uruguay, and Paraguay. He was also a policy advisor for the IDF.

In interviews and op-eds, including for leading private Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, Magen has been an unapologetic proponent of US-Israeli genocide. 

Magen has endorsed collective punishment, saying that Palestinians should “suffer” for supporting Hamas. He has claimed that Israel only launches “precise” attacks against Hamas, despite widespread evidence of systematically targeting civilians. Magen additionally amplified the blood libel campaign falsely accusing the anti-colonial resistance movement of mass rape and burning settler families on October 7.

Most recently, he has endorsed both US-Israeli wars against Iran, calling them “preemptive” operations against “existential threats.”

Para-state agents

Brigadier General (res.) and weapons contractor Yossi Pinto was present in a July 21 meeting with Acting President Rodríguez to mark the end of Israel’s post-earthquake mission in the country. He reportedly presented a “system” to help Venezuelan authorities assess thousands of structures damaged by the earthquakes.

A career IDF officer, Pinto participated in multiple Israeli wars and occupation missions, including the thwarted 2006 invasion of Lebanon as well as Operations “Cast Lead” (2008-09) and “Protective Edge” (2014) in Gaza. He has a documented record of war crimes and human rights violations.

The Pinto-commanded Duchifat Battalion and Kfir Brigade were caught beating and abusing Palestinian prisoners, which they filmed on their own phones in 2008. The two units have been accused of widespread unlawful killings and torture. Later, at the head of the Binyamin Brigade in the West Bank, Pinto took part in efforts to evict Palestinians from their lands, killing and maiming dozens of children (2014).

From 2018 to 2020, he commanded the IDF’s Search and Rescue Brigade. After passing to reservist status, Pinto also assumed a “land maneuver manager” role in Rafael, one of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers and a major supplier of battlefield systems in the current genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.

An Orthodox rabbi, Yosef Garmon arrived in Venezuela leading the delegation from the ZAKA NGO (more below). As a fluent Spanish speaker, he has been a prominent Zionist spokesperson and religious organizer throughout Latin America. As an IDF reservist, he served in multiple Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, and re-enlisted after Israel launched its latest operation in October 2023.

As president of the so-called “Humanitarian Coalition,” Garmon has widely promoted Israeli hasbara for Latin American publics. In Venezuela, he joined right-wing student organizations to deliver aid to affected communities. Garmon’s organization pledged to maintain a long-term presence in the Caribbean nation beyond the immediate relief actions.

In his media appearances, the Orthodox rabbi has likewise provided cover for Tel Aviv and Washington’s ongoing colonial holocausts, blaming mass civilian casualties from IDF bombings on Hezbollah and Hamas. He has also rejected Israeli responsibility for mass hunger in Gaza and regurgitated the debunked mass rape hoax to justify the atrocities.

Garmon has denied that Israel is committing genocide and framed its wars as a fight in service of “humanity” against “barbarism.”

Zionist NGOs

ZAKA is an Israeli volunteer organization founded in 1995, primarily known for its emergency response and search-and-rescue operations. Though it presents itself as an independent NGO, it operates as a civil extension of Israel’s emergency services, working directly with the police, military, and government.

ZAKA is a male-only, ultra-Orthodox religious group with no medical training, but it has deployed internationally following natural disasters such as the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and severe flooding in Texas in 2025. After the 2026 earthquake in Venezuela, a team led by rabbi Yosef Garmon (see above) reportedly delivered medical aid to affected families in La Guaira.

Furthermore, ZAKA has long functioned as a “humanitarian” conduit for Israeli disinformation. One of its members, Yossi Landau, was one of the main sources behind the fake stories about beheaded babies and sexual violence during the October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Flood operation. ZAKA has also been shameless about leveraging such hoaxes into lucrative fundraising opportunities.

Despite claiming to focus on “saving and honoring lives,” ZAKA has applauded Israeli military operations, including attacks against hospitals.

As Israel’s highest-profile humanitarian NGO, IsraAID is pivotal to soft power initiatives aimed at laundering Tel Aviv’s international image. It has deployed in several disasters worldwide, including in Japan, Kenya, and Puerto Rico.

Following the double earthquake in Venezuela, IsraAID brought in a team from neighboring Colombia that reportedly delivered humanitarian assistance to affected communities in La Guaira.

In close coordination with Israeli occupation forces, IsraAID entered the Gaza Strip in early 2024 amid efforts to displace UNRWA and local authorities and subject millions of Palestinians to an “architecture of starvation.”

IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer has repeated “mass rape” blood libel accusations against the Palestinian resistance.

Non-profit SmartAID and private contractor Magen teamed up to send a search-and-rescue team to Venezuela following the June 24 double earthquake.

Founded by Shachar Zahavi, a former co-founder of IsraAID, SmartAID presents itself as an organization integrating technology into humanitarian aid, including solar panels, water purification systems, and other relief solutions. Highlighting its philanthropic purposes, SmartAID has deployed on-the-ground teams after the 2023 earthquake in Turkey and the 2021 earthquake in Haiti.

At the same time, SmartAID has entered Gaza alongside the Israeli occupation forces, setting up shelters and food distribution as part of Israel’s efforts to displace Palestinian authorities and UNRWA in the course of its extermination campaign.

Magen, founded by IDF Colonel Eran Magen, is deeply embedded with the Israeli military and is the premier provider of disaster management training to Israeli government, armed forces, and civilian organizations. Colonel Magen led the IDF’s Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Unit during the 2006 Lebanon War.

Also on the ground in Venezuela was World Central Kitchen (WCK), serving meals to displaced families, rescue workers, and volunteers in the days after the earthquake. WCK was founded after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Based in the US and with close ties to US authorities, it has been instrumental to US foreign policy goals in places like Gaza and Ukraine.

The organization drew scrutiny after coordinating with Israeli occupation forces to bring aid into Gaza in early 2024 while Israel blocked relief efforts from other organizations, particularly UNRWA. WCK’s arrival was sponsored by the UAE and announced by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who alongside Netanyahu is under ICC indictment for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”

At the same time that it targeted flotillas bringing much-needed aid to Gaza, Israel actively coordinated WCK’s efforts. The relationship was strained in April 2024 when Israeli forces bombed a WCK convoy, killing seven workers.

The organization’s founder, Spanish-American celebrity chef José Andrés, has consistently parroted Israel’s “self-defense” narrative and blasted the Spanish government for referring to Israeli actions as “genocide.” The attack against the WCK convoy led Andrés to question Israeli operations.

José Gregorio Rengel is a civil engineer with a master’s degree in seismic-resistant engineering from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), where he presently teaches, and specialization studies in geological risks at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Rengel is a member of the government commission tasked with assessing the structural damage from the June 24 double earthquake. 

In this interview, he discusses the effects of the tremors, Venezuela’s building codes, and the steps toward reconstruction.

Why did the double earthquake on June 24 have such devastating effects on La Guaira?

Every seismic event is caused by a rupture along geological faults, and in this case, the rupture –which began in Yaracuy State –follows a distinct east-west direction along the San Sebastián fault. The coastal strip that is La Guaira lies directly on that rupture plane. In fact, the distance from La Guaira to the fault –specifically, the fault’s rupture plane –is 0 kilometers in some areas; in other words, the state lies directly on the rupture. This is made clear in all the reports released by various agencies, from [Venezuela Seismological Research Foundation] FUNVISIS to the US Geological Survey.

In an earthquake, the effects are maximized the closer cities are to these rupture planes. Furthermore, the earthquake was a very shallow event. In other words, it occurred at a small depth, which also leads to stronger effects. Thus, La Guaira meets these two specific conditions: first, it is practically located on the rupture plane, and second, the earthquake was a shallow event.

From a structural standpoint, with thousands of buildings affected, what are the priorities right now?

For now, our task is to inspect the buildings that were affected. Four weeks after the earthquake, we have conducted more than 32,000 inspections using the traffic-light system. Buildings that have not been damaged in any relevant way receive a green label; those that have been moderately affected, a yellow label; and those with significant damage, where people should not remain, a red label.

Next will come a reconstruction phase, which must be carried out in accordance with Venezuela’s seismic codes, most recently updated in 2019. In the case of La Guaira, additional studies are needed, such as developing a seismic microzoning analysis that already exists for Caracas. Although several studies are well underway, this classification has not yet been completed in La Guaira.

Can you explain a bit further what these building inspections consist of?

The current inspections are rapid assessments designed to enable an immediate decision regarding the occupants: whether they can stay, use the building under restricted conditions, or whether they must evacuate. Our job is to categorize the level of damage to the building.

This is followed by a second phase, during which a more detailed inspection will be conducted on structures that received yellow or red labels to determine which of these could proceed to the repair stage. This, in turn, requires a more detailed assessment by structural experts to determine what type of repair work can be performed and how it would be carried out. In cases where it is not possible to restore the structure, for those that are too severely damaged, protocols for safe, controlled demolition must be established.

The corporate media has tried to push the narrative that buildings constructed as part of the Great Venezuela Housing Mission (GMVV) were particularly hard hit in La Guaira. Is there any truth to it or is it a myth?

We have witnessed the collapse of various types of buildings, ranging from those built by the private sector, which account for the majority of the destroyed buildings observed, to those built by the public sector. Some of them were part of the Great Venezuela Housing Mission.

In some cases, the flattened buildings were very old. In other cases, they had structures that were supposed to be built in accordance with the latest codes. We will need to assess whether they failed to meet the standards, and that must be investigated. We cannot jump to conclusions. 

However, it is also possible that the buildings did meet the standards, but the seismic event exceeded them. So far, everything seems to indicate that this was an extraordinary geological event and may have surpassed the country’s existing codes, especially in La Guaira.

As far as we understand, in Venezuela the building codes are primarily governed by the standards of the Ministry of Habitat and Housing and the COVENIN industrial norms system. What do these standards establish?

Basically, there are two types of standards: seismic standards, which specify the level of acceleration for which a building is designed to withstand, in terms of ground acceleration. In other words, this relates to the force that an earthquake exerts on structures. Therefore, the structural setup of buildings is designed to withstand these lateral forces caused by earthquakes through a calculation of acceleration at the base. This is something the standards define very clearly. Our most recent seismic standards were updated in 2019.

And then there are the building codes. These are essentially regulations governing how to construct with reinforced concrete, steel, and other materials. But fundamentally, in Venezuela, we build with concrete and steel. Currently, both types of codes are up to date and comply with international standards. Furthermore, Venezuela has a long tradition of good engineering practices in earthquake-resistant construction and structural engineering.

If the investigations ultimately reveal that those standards were not met, should penalties be imposed?

Certainly, yes. It is necessary to conduct an investigation into each collapsed building, or at least a sample of these buildings. This is the ideal approach. Of course, we must also take into account that the earthquake was an event with characteristics that we might call extreme or extraordinary.

In the case of La Guaira, given that the geological fault is very close to the affected areas, this generated what in science jargon are called near-field effects, which subject structures to extreme stress. That is why even buildings that were well-constructed and very robust sustained significant damage.

However, all cases of total collapse must be investigated to understand the causes: whether the earthquake exceeded the standards under which they were built, or whether there were construction defects or regulatory violations. The goal is to determine the predominant cause of the collapse. In La Guaira, we are working with the hypothesis that the seismic event exceeded regulatory parameters.

Looking now toward reconstruction, what are the next steps, particularly in La Guaira?

The first step is to continue developing seismic microzoning studies. This is what will allow us to understand in which areas of La Guaira there is an amplification of accelerations, an amplification of the effects of earthquakes, so that we can impose the strictest design and construction requirements precisely in those areas. Therefore, these rigorous microzoning studies must be conducted, completed, and translated into a map that complements the other regulations.

Caracas, August 1, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government and the United Nations have launched a joint 60-day plan to assess the country’s recovery needs following the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24.

The initiative, announced in a press conference on Wednesday, is titled the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). It will be led by Venezuelan authorities with technical support from UN agencies, the European Union, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and other “strategic partners from various sectors.”

Under the proposal, a multidisciplinary team will work jointly to evaluate nine socioeconomic sectors in the hardest-hit regions and produce technical recommendations to guide reconstruction policies and investment decisions.

“The plan will provide a common and objective assessment of damages, losses, and recovery needs,” outgoing UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Venezuela Gianluca Rampolla told reporters in a televised broadcast with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

Rampolla stressed that “the success of this process will depend on the commitment, collaboration, and continuous exchange among all participating institutions.”

For her part, Rodríguez forecast “extraordinary results” from the initiative and expressed confidence in her government’s ability to establish “highly effective coordination mechanisms with international organizations and the United Nations system.”

The acting leader emphasized that the objective goes beyond simply restoring damaged infrastructure.

“It is not only about recovering what existed before; it is about going further. The double earthquake also affected sectors already living in poverty,” she affirmed. “We must move beyond the humanitarian phase and advance toward a recovery process that places the human being at the center in every dimension,” she said.

Education Minister Héctor Rodríguez, who also participated in the press conference, said that the working groups would begin immediately and produce a “detailed and realistic report” with general policy guidelines within the 60-day deadline.

Real estate subsidies and reconstruction plans

The acting president had previously announced that both public and private banks would offer housing loans to affected families. Homes valued at up to US $70,000 will receive an 80 percent state subsidy for their purchase, with the remaining 20 percent provided via a bank loan to be paid over 25 years. For properties valued between $70,000 and $100,000, the state will subsidize 50 percent, while the remainder will also be granted 25-year financing plans.

Venezuela’s present minimum income stands at $240 a month for public sector workers.

Rodríguez added that residents who lost their apartments will retain their property rights to the land and receive support for reconstruction.

“I have requested that the Supreme Court establish a special jurisdiction to address civil matters related to property ownership and personal identity,” she explained during a meeting with government officials on Tuesday.

The Venezuelan acting president likewise met with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday to discuss the possible use of international reserves to finance the Venezuela Rises Plan, through which the government aims to deliver 4,000 homes before the end of the year and build at least 10,000 additional ones in 2027.

According to reports, the talks additionally focused on the Caribbean nation’s macroeconomic outlook and economic policy priorities.

On July 17, the acting president announced access to$346 million from Venezuela’s IMF reserve tranche, funds that are immediately available to address urgent humanitarian needs arising from the disaster. However, the fund has yet to release around $4.5 billion in Special Drawing Rights that have been frozen since being issued in 2021.

The World Bank has estimated the immediate earthquake damages at $19.6 billion and warned that a slow reconstruction process could hinder Venezuela’s economic recovery for the next decade.

According to the latest official figures, the twin earthquakes left at least 5,546 people dead, 16,740 injured, and over 20,000 people homeless.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

The country that in 2008 heard then-President Hugo Chávez say, “Go to hell,  damn Yankees,” as he expelled the U.S. ambassador, today watches hundreds of U.S. soldiers patrol the streets of La Guaira, which was devastated by the two earthquakes a month ago. The soldiers distribute meager humanitarian aid in small boxes bearing U.S. flag stickers while filming for publicity spots.

The U.S. has promised $386 million to help Venezuela recover, but it and its allies continue to hold more than $22 billion in frozen Venezuelan assets. Washington’s actions demonstrate, once again, that its priority is oil, not the well-being of Venezuelans. Meanwhile, U.S. real estate developers are also visiting La Guaira, treating the devastation as yet another business opportunity.

Whole areas lie in ruins in La Guaira, where 82-year old Erminia Hernández lives. She was born in La Guaira, the coastal gateway to Venezuela that hosts the country’s main airport, and where residents of nearby Caracas go to sunbathe. She says she remembers the many tragedies that have struck this area, having lived through the 1967 earthquake, the Vargas mudslide in 1999, and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, she doesn’t remember anything as devastating as the double earthquakes of June 24. 

The 1967 quake stopped her as she was making majarete, a typical Caribbean dessert, she says. But last month’s earthquakes knocked her and her sister flat to the ground, face down in the hallway of their house, where she then knelt to pray as everything rocked violently. She says she does not remember who helped her stand up, but she is certain she will never forget the moment she thought she was about to die. 

“The 1967 earthquake was nothing compared to this,” Hernández tells Truthdig. “And during the mudslide, I only heard about one neighbor who died. But now, every day I learn about someone I know who has died or is missing. In my immediate family alone, we lost six people, and two more are hospitalized.”

She is right. In 1967, fewer than 300 people died. After the mudslide, some sources put the death toll at 700, with thousands more missing. The coronavirus claimed 5,856 lives across the entire country over several years. But these earthquakes have killed more than 5,270 people, left 16,700 injured and 18,000 displaced. The numbers rise daily. The government puts the number of rescued at 7,000 but does not mention how many are still missing. 

Jofram Gallipoli, his wife Oriana and their 4-year-old son Luciano were among those rescued. Seven floors collapsed on top of them in the Tanaguarenas neighborhood of La Guaira. They are alive today because Jofram’s father, José Alberto Gallipoli, owns a hardware store in Caracas, where he gathered crowbars, chisels, picks, a cordless drill, hacksaws and gloves so that relatives, friends, neighbors and police officers — none of them equipped with specialized rescue machinery — could dig a tunnel through the rubble.

During the 27 hours that the rescue took, Jofram Gallipoli tells Truthdig he communicated with the outside by banging an air conditioning grate with a ceramic tile every time he heard his name. 

“When we were under the rubble, we thought only our building had collapsed. Coming out was a shock. We lost all our material possessions, but we are alive, and I, who have emigrated before, want to stay here this time,” Jofram Gallipoli says.

According to official figures, nearly 200 buildings collapsed entirely and at least 900 were severely damaged. Structural engineers are now conducting inspections on thousands of homes in the seven states affected by the earthquakes. For Jofram’s father, “the physical structures fell, but we, the true architects of life, are ready to rebuild, from scratch, on a stronger foundation.”

José Alberto’s words are hopeful, but how much will this reconstruction actually cost? How will we carry it out? What intentions lie behind much of the “humanitarian aid” that countries like the U.S. are sending?

What is needed now

Preliminary assessments from the U.N. Development Program estimate direct physical damages at $6.7 billion, a figure that focuses on housing and does not include the full extent of infrastructure damage or the cost of long-term reconstruction.

The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, meanwhile, puts the full reconstruction cost at $37 billion: $24 billion for lost buildings — homes, schools, stores and hospitals — and $13 billion for damage to critical infrastructure such as roads and power grids. That represents nearly one-third of Venezuela’s current gross domestic product.

For now, however, the country that has promised the most economic “aid” to Venezuela is the United States, with its much-publicized $386 million.

But if the Trump administration released the Venezuelan funds it continues to block via sanctions, the country would not need these handouts: 31 tons of gold — valued at roughly $4.2 billion — remain frozen in London. The international financial system, including private banks and multilateral organizations, has blocked more than $22 billion in Venezuelan assets. At the same time, Venezuelan oil revenue is now deposited into an account at the U.S. Treasury. “We … control the dispersal of the money,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in January.

Washington’s double standards

One day after the double earthquake, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 60, which authorizes transactions related to humanitarian assistance in Venezuela but does not include the unfreezing of assets subject to sanctions or “any other transactions or activities prohibited by any other Executive Order.”

The United States acts this way because the architecture of punitive sanctions against Venezuela is the “legal foundation” for control over the Venezuelan oil industry, says William Serafino, a political scientist from the Central University of Venezuela. In 2017, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela that prohibited access to U.S. financial markets, and in 2018, expanded them to block purchasing of Venezuelan debt.

“With the issuance of licenses, Washington is able to modify certain aspects of its economic and financial coercion policy, always in the interest of U.S. companies, but without altering the overall sanctions framework,” Serafino tells Truthdig. “The sanctions are what guarantees U.S. appropriation of Venezuelan resources at a clear disadvantage to Venezuela.” 

These licenses are official documents issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control that allow American individuals and companies, or those with U.S. ties, to carry out very specific and limited transactions with the Venezuelan state or the state oil company PDVSA. 

Serafino says that such exemptions and the small amount of funds provided after the earthquakes are intended to “whitewash this illegal sanctions policy” in order to undermine the broad consensus across Venezuelan society in favor of lifting all measures that hinder the normal development of Venezuela’s economy. 

The U.S. has similarly just provided $100 million in aid to Cuba, after sanctioning the country since 1962. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the sanctions violate international law — which U.N. human rights experts say could also be true of the Venezuela sanctions. U.N. human rights experts describe the latest trade tariffs that block oil from getting to Cuba as “an extreme form of unilateral economic coercion” that violates self determination.

Venezuelans aren’t the only ones rejecting the U.S. sanctions against their country. After the earthquakes, 13 prominent economists, including Isabella Weber, Jeffrey Sachs and James K. Galbraith, signed a letter calling for the lifting of sanctions. Likewise, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, warned that such coercive measures directly affect the delivery of aid and recovery plans.

“Fletcher’s statement shows that temporary exemptions are insufficient,” Serafino says, “Financial institutions, even when they theoretically have ‘permission’ from the Treasury Department to operate, are very cautious about expediting transactions related to supplies, donations and the transfer of aid funds between multilateral institutions and humanitarian organizations, due to fear of penalties and fines.”

Transactions that under normal circumstances “would take a few days,” he says, are subjected to a bureaucratic morass because of the sanctions, because “banks must constantly consult their legal departments and steer clear of red lines.”

At the same time, the United States is also using the tragedy to ramp up its military intervention in Venezuela through a “humanitarian support” operation coordinated by the U.S. Southern Command and the State Department, under the Department of Defense. That has included moving the warships USS Fort Lauderdale and USS Billings toward the coast of La Guaira, flying helicopters over devastated areas and deploying surveillance drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper.

“It is extremely serious that, taking advantage of a tragedy and under the pretext of humanitarian aid, the United States has not only taken over the country’s main airport and seaport but also deployed 900 Marines in La Guaira and 2,000 across the entire operation,” former Vice President Elias Jaua, who also held multiple Cabinet posts during the Chavez government, tells Truthdig. 

“Moreover, we have seen the mapping they have done of the entire Venezuelan coastline with drones and helicopters. This is another escalation in the military occupation,” he says, adding that the deployment also imposes strict military monitoring and de facto control over Venezuela’s skies and coastline from U.S. bases in Puerto Rico, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.

Jaua, who now works as a university professor, says the measures openly violate Article 13 of Venezuela’s Constitution, which bars foreign military bases or installations with military purposes by any country or coalition of countries in Venezuelan maritime, air and land territory.

Asked what will happen to the U.S. military presence in Venezuelan territory once the emergency ends, Jaua only comments that “a civic, political and grassroots movement must be built to defend Venezuela’s right to remain a republic. Otherwise, it will end up as a North American [i.e. U.S.] colony annexed to the United States or a protectorate administered from the north.”

Serafino, on the other hand, questions why Washington would want to flood Venezuela with Marines and other military forces when it has already managed to gain control over the country’s resources without a large and sustained presence since Jan. 3, when it launched airstrikes on the country and seized the president.

“It seems like an unnecessary and politically contentious measure, especially with U.S. midterm elections around the corner and a strong chance [President Donald] Trump could lose them,” Serafino says. 

“I think the military presence will be limited to solidifying U.S. influence over oil and other strategic resources, mapping migration flows from the air and conducting permanent flyovers and naval patrols to signal to Russia and China that both Venezuela and the Caribbean Basin fall under Trump’s purview.”

Economic interests

But U.S. interests in Venezuela go beyond the military. Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), a company led by Miami luxury homebuilder Michael Capponi, along with other real estate developers and a network of corporate interests with ties to Trump, are already seeing the earthquakes’ devastation as a business opportunity.

While the State Department has announced that it is working with U.S. corporations including Walmart and Amazon to bolster the “humanitarian” response in Venezuela, Serafino views GEM’s presence as more important and “pervasive.” He does not rule out that Pentagon-affiliated contractors could become involved in projects to refurbish Maiquetia International Airport, the Port of La Guaira and the management of shelters.

Recent precedents such as Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake saw Beltway contractors — defense, technology and consulting firms based in Washington, D.C. — securing big business opportunities. In Iraq, they obtained lucrative reconstruction contracts. In Haiti, the pattern repeated through the privatization of security, logistics management and international aid programs.

This aligns with complaints from social activists in La Guaira including José Félix Valera, who tells Truthdig that some contractors, mainly U.S. ones, are already demolishing and clearing land where people are still trying to recover the bodies of their relatives. 

“There have been serious confrontations because people want to recover the bodies,” Valera says. “I saw people stop a building from being demolished, and three days later they found a young man alive. Still, the contractors with machinery take advantage of the early morning hours to demolish.” 

While a desire to rebuild quickly is understandable, Valera, who apart from his activism is also a leader at community radio station Voces in La Guaira, believes other interests are at play. The demolishing is taking place at “the largest flat plots [of land] facing the Caribbean Sea in the region, and that has a lot of implications from a geopolitical standpoint but also for tourism,” he says. “For example, this is one of the best places for international events like Grand Slam tournaments or deep-sea fishing.”

“But the U.S. is also interested in the real estate possibilities,” he says.

Valera also wonders why there are so many U.S. troops in La Guaira. “Two thousand arrived, of which only 300 are rescue workers — the other 1,700 are soldiers, and at the moment they are guarding these demolition operations.”

The U.S. did not come to Venezuela alone; Israeli officials from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command are also coordinating the supposed recovery of 14 sectors of La Guaira. In fact, they have already delivered a six-phase plan for the state’s recovery to the Venezuelan government. All of this comes despite Venezuela having broken diplomatic relations with Israel 17 years ago. Over those nearly two decades, Venezuelan officials have frequently issued harsh criticism and accusations against Tel Aviv over its genocidal actions in Palestine and the region.

Yet today, the same army that has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since 2023 is now in Venezuela, claiming to want to help recover the bodies of our dead and rebuild our homes. Many Venezuelans are deeply distrustful and worried about what such “humanitarian aid” will mean for them in coming months.

“The future of La Guaira and the practical debate over the use of this land must involve the people of La Guaira, because this is our land and our economic livelihood,” Valera says.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Truthdig

“Innocence will not kill the people, but it won’t save them either. Their conscience will save them and that’s where I put my heart and soul.”
Alí Primera

Still reeling from two consecutive earthquakes, our hearts heavy with sorrow for our compatriots who have died or been injured, moved by the pain of family members who are still searching for their loved ones, if only to give them a proper burial, and in solidarity with the anguish of the tens of thousands of families left homeless, with all the world’s sorrows converging at once, we cannot help but raise our voice about the need to fight for Venezuela’s independence and dignity. In fact, the tragedy striking us today makes this need all the more urgent.

Taking advantage of the catastrophic situation, armed US troops have landed in La Guaira, warships have been stationed off our coasts, and Venezuelan airspace is violated daily by drones, airplanes, and helicopters belonging to the occupying power. They have not rescued nor aided anyone. They merely occupy the territory, surveying land, and controlling port and airport facilities. They are humiliating us.

They announce lavish reconstruction projects alongside the Israeli government, whose top leaders face substantiated accusations of blatant genocide against the Palestinian people before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. A peaceful and solidarity-driven people like the Venezuelans, with a tradition of fighting for independence, peaceful coexistence, and the human cause, do not deserve this affront.

To add insult to injury, we witness a widespread silence of political leaders from all sectors with representation and responsibilities in various state institutions. They appear more interested in presenting themselves as the best option for collaborating with the Trump administration’s colonization plan than in fulfilling their constitutional duty to preserve the integrity and dignity of the Republic.

Under these circumstances, those of us who deeply love our Venezuelan homeland are compelled to denounce, once again, that the United States government:

1. Is exercising colonial rule in Venezuela, exploiting our resources and hijacking our economic revenues, which are, moreover, necessary for reconstruction following the earthquakes and for overcoming the precarious economic and social situation of the general population. This is exacerbated by the imposition of an unfair and corrupt debt service plan, which will tie up a high percentage of public finances for the remainder of this century.
2. Has violated the right to self-determination by imposing a political plan tailored to its annexationist intentions.
3. Has carried out a military invasion of our sovereign territory, beginning last August 2025, including the vile missile attack on January 3, 2026, which resulted in deaths and injuries, and continuing with several incursions and attacks in the following months. This invasion is currently manifested in the landing of heavily armed soldiers and equipment in La Guaira since late June, with the grave risk that this presence poses to the physical and moral integrity of the population, especially women and children.
4. It forces the implementation of a neoliberal, extractivist model that excludes the vast majority of the population from the common good and will irreversibly damage our ecosystem.
5. It draws Venezuela into its geopolitical war in West Asia, with dangerous consequences for our security as a nation.

Consequently, as a people, we must be aware of the gravity of the occupation and its consequences, and trust in our capabilities as a nation to advance a unified agenda that will allow us to:

1. Regain the right to political, institutional, and legislative self-determination. We, the Venezuelan people, are the ones who must democratically decide who governs us and what laws and institutions we need and want, within the framework of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
2. Regain economic sovereignty: freely trade our resources and products. The Venezuelan State must manage, under strict fiscal controls, the revenues from these resources for the common good and, as a matter of urgency, to overcome the economic and social consequences of the emergency caused by the earthquakes and a decade of economic chaos and brutal, unjust, and illegal sanctions.
3. Demand the withdrawal of military troops and security agents from the United States and the State of Israel, and the cessation of any type of foreign military operation within Venezuelan territory. The security of the nation is the responsibility of the Venezuelan State.
4. Build a model and a plan for political, economic, and social development based on inclusion and social equality, agreed upon by all political currents.
5. Exercise our right to maintain peaceful and cooperative relations with all nations of the world that share the principles of humanity and international coexistence.

Fellow compatriots, there is an effort underway to convince us that we are incapable of governing our own nation, that the only way to achieve development and welfare is under the tutelage of or annexation by the United States government. This is utterly false. The Venezuelan people must understand that the United States neither promotes development nor generates well-being for the vast majority in the countries it occupies. This runs counter to its own doctrine.

This colonial administration will only establish oil and mining enclaves, with no economic benefits for the nation, no limits on the violation of the Venezuelan people’s rights, and with appalling environmental destruction. The consequence will be the deepening and generalization of structural poverty, as evidenced in all the countries occupied over the past decades.

It is necessary and timely to warn that La Guaira is set to undergo a process of gentrification and displacement of the local population, so that the Trump family, their associates, and business partners can secure the best plots of land to develop a real estate enclave linked to port, airport, and tourism services. This may likewise happen in some other coastal towns as well.

Current circumstances demand that we do everything in our power to reach a national accord aimed at restoring our Republic, and to prove to ourselves that we can indeed build a democratic society here on Venezuelan soil, where we can all live with equality, justice, and dignity. The Trump clan’s occupation will only structurally expand and entrench underdevelopment and poverty. Only by regaining our national self-determination can we attempt, once again and as many times as necessary, to build a homeland that shelters the entire Venezuelan family. In other words, a true Republic. So it shall be. Let’s fight!

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Translated by Venezuelanalysis.

Source: Horizonte en Disputa

Caracas, July 17, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A group of US Congress members addressed a letter to President Donald Trump advocating an immediate removal of sanctions against Venezuela in the wake of its recent double earthquake.

“These economic restrictions are severely hampering urgent relief efforts, and will continue to threaten Venezuela’s recovery and long-term reconstruction if allowed to remain in place,” the text read.

The missive was signed by 14 representatives from the Democratic Party, including Jesús García, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They cited the United Nations estimates of earthquake damage as high as US $37 billion, roughly a third of Venezuela’s current GDP.

“The existing sanctions regime on Venezuela has far-reaching indiscriminate effects,” the legislators continued. “The removal of sanctions will allow state institutions to more effectively coordinate and deliver emergency healthcare, shelter and food.”

The letter was backed by a number of NGOs, including Just Foreign Policy, Demand Progress, and Peace Action.

Venezuela was rocked by near-simultaneous 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes on June 24 that caused widespread destruction in north-central regions. The coastal state of La Guaira was the worst hit, with hundreds of collapsed buildings. The latest official death count stands at nearly 5000.

Since 2017, Washington has levied wide-reaching sanctions against Venezuela, targeting key sectors such as banking, mining, trade, and especially the oil industry. Coercive measures against Venezuela’s all-important energy sector have caused revenue losses estimated at more than US $20 billion per year. The sanctions regime imposed during Trump’s first administration was largely kept in place by the Joe Biden White House.

Venezuela’s GDP contracted by three-quarters between 2014 and 2020, with 88 percent of the contraction taking place under the US economic blockade. In recent days, hundreds of scholars have also demanded the lifting of coercive measures against Venezuela.

Despite pledges of assistance following the devastating tremors, the Trump White House has not entertained any sanctions relief, issuing only a four-month license allowing earthquake relief-related transactions.

However, the US representatives called the measure “entirely insufficient” due to their limited scope and overcompliance from financial institutions.

They urged the Trump administration to “do everything to facilitate Venezuela’s access to its frozen assets abroad.” Venezuelan leaders have called on Washington and its allies to lift sanctions and unfreeze assets for reconstruction efforts. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez penned a letter to UK King Charles III requesting the release of around US $4.5 billion in Venezuelan gold held by the Bank of England.

The US and European allies are estimated to hold over $10 billion in other assets, including frozen bank accounts and roughly $5 billion in IMF-issued Special Drawing Rights (SDR). In contrast, US offers of post-earthquake humanitarian aid have only totaled $386 million.

Since the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, particularly from oil sales. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the acting Rodríguez administration must submit a “budget request” before accessing its own funds. 

Trump has repeatedly stated that the US has recouped the costs of the January 3 operation “many times over” from its undisclosed cut taken from Venezuelan oil proceeds. Economist Francisco Rodríguez has found a significant delay in Washington’s disbursement of Venezuelan funds.

The Trump administration also took advantage of the June 24 natural disaster to significantly expand its military footprint in the Caribbean nation. The Southern Command confirmed the presence of more than 900 servicemen on Venezuelan territory by the end of June.

US forces have taken over air traffic coordination, communications, and security operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, while two US warships have established a “command-and-control node” at La Guaira port.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

A devastating double earthquake hit Venezuela on June 24, leaving a trail of destruction and thousands dead. Dozens of buildings collapsed in coastal La Guaira State, the worst affected in the South American country.

The natural disaster followed two unnatural catastrophes: a decade-plus of US-led economic sanctions, and the January 3 US bombing attack and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

But rather than sympathize with the beleaguered country, the Western media establishment seized the opportunity to continue demonizing the Bolivarian Revolution—while whitewashing Washington’s economic terrorism and its present efforts to tighten its semi-colonial stranglehold on the country (FAIR.org, 2/27/26).

An assault on public housing

The ground had barely stopped shaking when corporate media oligopolies took aim at one of the most visible pillars of Hugo Chávez’s legacy: Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV).

A Washington Post headline (6/27/26) declared: “These Homes Rose out of Venezuela’s Socialist Revolution. Now They’re Rubble.”

An architect was quoted claiming that the damaged apartments had been “constructed hastily” to “meet a political deadline.” Though the Post claimed Chávez launched the housing program to secure votes for the 2012 election, the only beneficiary the paper could find received her home in 2014.

AFP (6/29/26) singled out damage to a GMVV complex—“once touted as part of former strongman leader Hugo Chavez’s flagship housing program”—arguing that it “symbolize[d] the country’s dire situation.” Dozens of buildings geared toward tourism, including hotels and high-rises built for short-term rentals, in this neighborhood of Catia La Mar, were also flattened by the devastating tremors, but AFP made no effort to provide that context.

The New York Times (7/5/26) likewise attempted to besmirch what is one of the most ambitious public housing projects worldwide by repeating the unfounded claim that homes were assigned as a “reward for loyalty to Mr. Chávez.” However, the paper of record at least admitted that “Misión Vivienda buildings are far from the only apartments to have fallen.”

The Wall Street Journal (6/28/26) could not hide its elitism in describing how Chávez “rushed to provide apartments to the poor” in a town “beloved by the rich,” with a golf course and a “marina for yachts.” It went further by promoting a social media hoax that styrofoam found in damaged buildings meant that the housing mission used absurdly unsuitable materials in its construction. In reality, expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam is widely used to lighten the load on structures and for thermal insulation, a key factor in such a hot climate.

Venezuelan officials have called for a review of the collapsed structures and building codes, though they have claimed that the public housing buildings fared better than their privately constructed neighbors.

There is little evidence to suggest that GMVV buildings suffered a worse fate than their private sector counterparts. According to the open-source tool Terremoto Venezuela, only 11 out of 258 buildings reported as collapsed (“daño total”) belong to the housing mission.

The definitive figures will need to be put in perspective to see whether affected buildings and non-complicity with existing codes were prevalent in the GMVV developments or the recent tourist-driven real estate boom in La Guaira. But the media establishment immediately jumped to its politically motivated verdict before any thorough investigation had been conducted.

Whitewashing sanctions

While multiple outlets stressed that it is necessary to scrutinize whether authorities enforced the appropriate regulations in what is known to be vulnerable terrain (France 24, 6/29/26; Reuters, 6/29/26), no evaluation of the Venezuelan state’s record is accurate if it ignores the wide-reaching sanctions regime imposed by Washington.

Yet many Western journalists completely overlooked sanctions in their coverage of the earthquakes and the Venezuelan state’s capacity to respond to a natural catastrophe.

Corporate outlets like the Financial Times (6/28/26) wasted no time in proclaiming that the “legacy of ‘Chavismo’ hinder[ed] Venezuela’s earthquake response,” while AP (7/3/26) decreed that the government’s response was “slow” and the BBC (6/29/26) claimed survivors were “left to fend for themselves.”

None saw fit to even mention that Venezuela has been under economic coercive measures for years. NBC (6/25/26) avoided the kneejerk verdicts and offered lots of testimony on the natural disaster, but when concluding that “Venezuela already faced economic challenges and poverty,” chose not to name sanctions as a key economic challenge and poverty factor.

In other reports, the whitewashing of sanctions was more subtle. The Guardian (7/3/26) attributed the government’s “sluggish response” to “years of corruption, economic mismanagement and investment in political repression and domestic security rather than emergency services and healthcare.” As almost an afterthought, it added that sanctions “have further enfeebled the Venezuelan state.” The Washington Post‘s anti-public housing article (6/27/26) called Venezuela’s economic collapse “the result of mismanagement by the socialist government exacerbated by US-imposed economic sanctions.”

The New York Times (7/4/26) wrote that “Venezuela’s fragile infrastructure—including rail, electricity and healthcare systems that have suffered from years of corruption and mismanagement.” In a later section it added, “Venezuela is reeling from years of economic turmoil and crippling US sanctions.”

Over the years, Western media have pulled all the stops to legitimize Washington’s hybrid war on Caracas and conceal the murderous impact of sanctions (FAIR.org, 6/4/21, 6/13/22). There is no shortage of documentation on how these coercive measures represented collective punishment (CEPR, 4/25/19). In an extensive 2021 report, UN rapporteur Alena Douhan thoroughly discussed the impact of sanctions on Venezuelan public services and infrastructure.

The current framing  of earthquake coverage aims to separate US sanctions as much as possible from their direct consequences. Rail, electricity and healthcare systems became much more “fragile” because sanctions blocked the Venezuelan government from servicing equipment and importing spare parts, not to mention brain drain resulting from mass migration of qualified personnel largely trained in public universities. Similarly, the “economic turmoil” is a result of US sanctions, not a parallel phenomenon.

Indeed, economist Francisco Rodríguez, senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, dismisses arguments that the bulk of Venezuela’s economic decline preceded sanctions (CEPR, 5/19/26). Instead, the rate of GDP contraction nearly quadrupled following the US imposition of unilateral coercive measures in 2017.

And the need to conjure elaborate intermediation schemes in order to circumvent sanctions opened more avenues for corruption. To present the latter as an issue that uniquely and disproportionately plagues a government facing an economic blockade is disingenuous, to say the least.

Ignoring the semi-colonial straitjacket

In their recent coverage, most corporate media sources were quick to decree that the Venezuelan government’s response was “slow” (Financial Times, 6/27/26; Guardian, 6/29/26), “inadequate” (Reuters, 7/5/26), “faltering” (AP, 7/1/26) or “completely ineffective” (PBS, 7/2/26).

It is understandable that ordinary people would not sing the government’s praises after losing a relative or while looking for one trapped under rubble. But journalists have a responsibility to add context. In this case, a significant mitigating circumstance is that the tremors heavily hit the local authorities, which run civil protection and other services.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez stated that nearly all the directors from the La Guaira regional government were lost in the tragedy. Coupled with a collapse of communications, this added more hurdles for response efforts.

Another overlooked element is just how rare and deadly this double earthquake was. The New York Times was a notable exception, with a thorough piece (7/3/26) explaining how the disaster unfolded and why it caused so much destruction.

But the most relevant element to understand Venezuela’s present constraints is, once again, the role played by the US government. Just like with sanctions, corporate news outlets whitewashed Washington’s current semi-colonial impositions on the South American nation.

Since the January 3 attacks, the Trump administration has seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, particularly from oil sales (Venezuelanalysis, 2/20/26). Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Venezuelan government would need to submit a “budget request” to access its own funds held by the US Treasury (Venezuelanalysis, 1/29/26). Neither US nor Venezuelan authorities have offered any transparent information on the amounts collected and disbursed, including Washington’s intermediation fees.

Trump is not known for precision in his statements, but he has not been shy in boasting that the cost of the January 3 military operation has been paid “many times over” from oil profits (New York Times, 6/29/26; Guardian, 6/28/26; Al Jazeera, 6/24/26). While there is no information to verify the claims, economist Francisco Rodríguez, analyzing Venezuelan Central Bank data, concluded that there is at least a significant delay in the US disbursement of Venezuelan funds back to the country (Banca y Negocios, 6/22/26). The suspicious lack of transparency has even drawn questions from traditional foreign policy paladins like the Council on Foreign Relations.

With few exceptions (Reuters, 7/1/26; AP, 7/3/26; New York Times, 7/6/26), this key, semi-colonial constraint on the Venezuelan state is completely overlooked. Even worse, some outlets mistakenly stated that the White House has “lifted” or  authorized “relaxation” of sanctions (PBS, 7/2/26; Financial Times, 6/27/26). Actually it has only issued licenses for select Western corporations, and with the condition that proceeds be deposited in the US Treasury account. Following the recent natural disaster, the Trump administration issued a four-month waiver allowing earthquake relief-related transactions, but left all restrictions and asset freezes in place (Venezuelanalysis, 6/26/26).

Another ominous development has been the US forces’ takeover of operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, the country’s main air hub, and the La Guaira port. Despite regular Southern Command press releases, and even photographic evidence, the media establishment has paid little attention to this serious (further) encroachment on Venezuelan sovereignty.

The outlook is bleak for Venezuela, with this tragedy likely to increase dependency and semi-colonial plundering. But there is room for hope. The limits of US power are being exposed all over the world, and resorting to more and more violence will not stem this inevitable decline. Peoples in the Global South, including in Venezuela, will eventually (re)take control of their destinies. But they know that the corporate press barons are no allies in this struggle.

Source: FAIR

Mérida, July 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan National Assembly preliminarily approved two laws granting expanded benefits to landlords and the private real estate sector as part of authorities’ post-earthquake reconstruction plans.

The Tuesday session was held at Simón Bolívar Park in La Carlota, Caracas, after the legislative palace suffered damage from the June 24 double tremor.

The Venezuelan legislature voted in favor of a Law for the Special Regime of Housing Property Leasing and a partial reform of the Law Against Real Estate Fraud. Both projects will now be subject to consultations and revisions before being put to a second and final vote.

“Our main task with this reform is to stimulate the housing rental market,” National Assembly Vice President Pedro Infante stated. “We have to strengthen the legal certainty for property owners and also protect tenants. It’s a legal balance.”

Infante added that officials estimate that there are around 200,000 homes that could enter the rental market but that parliament has to “untie the knots that are holding this market back.”

The existing legislation governing housing rentals was enacted by former President Hugo Chávez in 2011 and it is highly protective of tenants. Grassroots movements participated directly in several housing laws.

In a recent press conference, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez called the current law “regressive” and argued that parliament needed to make property owners feel “more secure in renting their properties.” Real estate chambers have long lobbied for reforms to housing laws.

The preliminarily approved bill expands conditions for landlords to evict their tenants, including two months of unpaid rent, deterioration of the property, or unauthorized subletting. It additionally establishes that disputes are to be resolved via mediation or municipal courts. Tenant movements have recently denounced a growing trend of landlords bringing “invasion” charges against tenants as a way to evict them, with the complicity of public prosecutors.

The partial reform of the law against real estate fraud, likewise approved during Tuesday’s session, loosens conditions for the sale of housing properties yet to be built or under construction while also reducing collateral requirements for developers.

“The reform seeks to guarantee better conditions, legal security, and financing capacity so that the private sector initiates an aggressive, accelerated process of housing construction,” Infante explained, adding that it “removes rigid price schemes,” allowing real estate developers to factor “variations in the costs of materials in supplies” into house prices.

Under the updated law, house sale and pre-sale contracts no longer need to be individually approved by government housing authorities. Instead, the governing body will publish a set of general rules. According to the reform text, banks that finance real estate projects will no longer be liable for their non-completion, with legislators arguing that the measure will boost credit options.

Deputy Alejandra Rodríguez, from opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo, endorsed the preliminary housing reforms for seeking a “balance between the right to housing, the protection of private property, legal security, and the promotion of responsible investment.”

Venezuelan authorities have prioritized finding housing solutions with over 20,000 people forced into temporary shelters after losing their homes in the June 24 double earthquake, most of them in coastal La Guaira State. The latest official figures placed the death toll at 4,734, with nearly 17,000 injured.

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has launched the “Venezuela Renace” program to conduct inspections and repair works in affected buildings, as well as revitalize the construction sector to generate new housing complexes in a short time frame. She likewise called on public and private banks to expand mortgage programs, vowing that the government would subsidize them up to 80 percent.

On Monday, Rodríguez met with representatives from business chambers, including construction and real estate, and reiterated calls for the private sector to participate in the post-earthquake reconstruction. 

“Every person who lost their home should have hope of being under a new roof in the short term,” she stated.

Rodríguez announced that the government is working on construction plans in La Guaira alongside the Venezuelan Construction Chamber and the Venezuelan Real Estate Chamber. Authorities are conducting soil studies and identifying potential land plots. She recalled that the export of construction materials is presently banned.

The acting president assured those present that Venezuela remains on a path of economic growth and that household consumption had risen by 33 percent in June.

Rodríguez reiterated calls for the removal of economic sanctions against the country and ongoing efforts to secure the release of frozen Venezuelan assets, including gold reserves held by the Bank of England.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

On June 24, the collision of the South American tectonic plate with the Caribbean one caused a major release of energy from the depths of the Earth, leaving a trail of destruction in Venezuela. The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that rocked the country caused thousands of deaths and the collapse of hundreds of structures.

While we try to process the trauma and return to something that resembles “normalcy,” Venezuela, already battered by years of sanctions and the recent US military attack, now faces the challenge of rebuilding itself in the broadest sense of the word and in an ever more complicated context. With that in mind, we have to start by asking: who is in charge of the country and its future?

Using the natural disaster as the perfect excuse, US forces have taken over operations at La Guaira port and the Simón Bolívar International Airport. US servicemen have set up shop in the air traffic control tower, surveillance drones fly over Caracas, and US helicopters patrol the disaster areas on their own.

This dangerous trend did not start on June 24. In recent months, in unapologetic fashion, the US has been setting the Venezuelan political agenda, notwithstanding the subtle or absurd efforts to conceal it.

For instance, at the end of May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez would visit India to negotiate oil deals. Rubio openly offered Venezuelan crude to India as part of its campaign against Russian exports. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry pretended not to have heard anything and confirmed the trip two weeks later.

Back in February, the Venezuelan government denied rumors that businessman and recent minister Alex Saab had been detained, only to surrender him to US agencies months later. And despite having all that time to come up with a proper explanation, the official line was that authorities supposedly “found out” that Saab is Colombian and had a fake Venezuelan ID. In Venezuela, sometimes the chutzpah reaches such extremes that people prefer to just move on. Many officials promised we would soon know more details about the Saab case, including his collaboration with US agencies, but we’re still waiting.

Later, in June, the government’s quick-response “Miraflores al Momento” social media account put a “fake news” label on a news story about the alleged presence of US military forces in southeast Bolívar state. Then, days later, Trump himself broke the news that the Southern Command in coordination with the CIA had killed alleged Tren de Aragua leader Héctor “Niño” Guerrero in Bolívar state. The extrajudicial killing spree that began last year in the Caribbean, always sadistically bragged about by Trump and his goons, had reached Venezuelan soil.

In response, the Venezuelan government had no alternative but to put out its own statement, reporting a “joint operation” and praising its success. After years of preaching about the danger represented by the CIA, it is now welcome to operate freely in Venezuela as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Niño Guerrero was not executed for our safety, but rather to clear the way for Western mining corporations. No one has said this explicitly but it’s not hard to connect the dots. What’s next? Private security contractors like in Iraq? What’s certain is that we won’t be the ones enjoying those gold profits. It’s substituting one mafia for another, except this one is white-collared.

Another example of a political agenda decided far away from Caracas is a new “dialogue” process with an opposition faction headed by Dinorah Figuera, president of a way-beyond-expired opposition-majority National Assembly, elected in 2015. Through an avalanche of communiqués, we were told that this process will set up “an agenda with concrete milestones and schedules” to “strengthen democracy.”

Figuera means nothing to 99 percent of Venezuelans and she confessed she came to meet National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on the instructions of the US State Department. She is the perfect example of the rottenness spawning from Washington, heading a “parliament” years after its term ended because the US still recognized it as Venezuela’s “sole legitimate authority” and there were still hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan assets abroad to manage, or pilfer… She didn’t clarify much about the upcoming negotiations, beyond platitudes about “coexistence” and “democracy”.

Once more it was up to Washington to offer details. In its own statement, the State Department announced the talks aimed to rebuild “democratic institutions,” appoint a new electoral council, establish “guarantees” for political participation and the “protection” of civil liberties for open political debate.

Of course, no tale of US influence over Venezuelan politics could be complete without María Corina Machado. The far-right leader is getting antsy while on the sidelines, with no moves to play except trying to get Trump’s attention. For example, after the killing of Niño Guerrero, she wrote that “all these achievements were unthinkable six months ago. Therefore, we recognize and thank President Trump.”

Having been left out of the recent dialogue initiative, notwithstanding the repeated coronation ceremonies from her acolytes, Machado saw a golden opportunity to recoup political capital with the natural disaster in Venezuela. She has a comms apparatus standing at the ready for photo ops and video testimony, showing how she is somewhere and the government is not. But the Trump administration showed little appetite for this kind of circus, and despite Machado being airborne to Curaçao en route to Venezuela, ordered her to turn around.

The explanation is simple: the White House is not done in terms of tying down with shamefully anti-sovereign energy deals and burying us in debt until the second coming of Christ. As such, it is not the time for turmoil.

And though certain Machado aides announced that she would defy Trump, the truth is that she has stood pat, at least for now, while waiting for Washington winds to change.

At the end of the day, Rodríguez, Figuera, Machado, and many others are fighting for their place in the spotlight. But the Trump administration is the one writing the script, and even more so after the earthquakes. Though the tale may seem farcical at times, it is ultimately a tragedy for the Venezuelan people.

Jessica Dos Santos is a Venezuelan university professor, journalist and writer whose work has appeared in outlets such as RT, Épale CCS magazine and Investig’Action. She is the author of the book “Caracas en Alpargatas” (2018). She’s won the Aníbal Nazoa Journalism Prize in 2014 and received honorable mentions in the Simón Bolívar National Journalism prize in 2016 and 2018.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Caracas, July 9, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) –  Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has called on UK King Charles III to release her country’s gold reserves held at the Bank of England in order to finance relief and reconstruction efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24.

“I have decided to send a letter, among others, to the King of England asking for the release of the gold being held at the Bank of England. That gold belongs to our people and should be used to address the terrible, tragic consequences of the twin earthquakes,” Rodríguez said in a televised broadcast on Wednesday.

The acting president also revealed that she held a phone conversation with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss the release of Venezuelan resources that remain blocked by the institution.

Earlier on Wednesday, during a virtual meeting with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil likewise urged countries holding Venezuelan assets abroad to “begin a process of releasing” those funds so they can be used for the country’s recovery.

Gil specifically referred to the gold reserves held by the Bank of England and Venezuelan funds blocked under US sanctions. Around 31 metric tons of gold, currently valued at approximately US $4.2 billion, remain frozen in London. In addition, nearly $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocated by the IMF in 2021 also remain inaccessible.

On Wednesday, Rodríguez and Georgieva reportedly discussed the use of Venezuela’s $350 million SDR reserve fund, which is different from the SDR allocation.

On June 25, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 60, authorizing earthquake relief-related transactions until October. However, OFAC’s waiver does not authorize the unblocking of assets subject to US sanctions regulations or “any other transaction or activity prohibited by another Executive Order.”

Meanwhile, 113 prominent economists, including Isabella Weber, Jeffrey Sachs, and James K. Galbraith, signed an open letter calling for immediate action to “unfetter Venezuela’s humanitarian response and reconstruction from ongoing economic and financial sanctions, asset freezes, and onerous debt burdens.”

“We urge governments, international financial institutions, and creditors to act now, on the principle that lives, public health, and economic recovery take precedence over coercion and collection,” the statement read. The economists suggested mechanisms including emergency liquidity, sanctions relief, and debt cancellation as a “minimum response […] to allow Venezuelans to rebuild with dignity.”

Along similar lines, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned that the earthquakes are likely to generate “a very difficult economic situation” that could reduce Venezuela’s GDP by “several percentage points,” arguing that sanctions “must be eased so they do not hinder the arrival of humanitarian assistance or recovery efforts.”

Fletcher added that during emergencies, access to financial resources, banking channels, and international cooperation mechanisms can determine how quickly aid, supplies, and reconstruction funding reach affected communities.

Preliminary assessments by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimate infrastructure and essential services losses at approximately US$6.7 billion. However, the final figure could reach $8.7 billion, depending on housing and asset losses, and the estimates do not include the full extent of infrastructure damage or the long-term reconstruction costs.

For its part, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) estimates that rebuilding Venezuela will require approximately $37 billion. According to its assessment, $24 billion would be needed to replace damaged buildings—including homes, schools, businesses, and hospitals—while another $13 billion would be required to repair critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, highways, and electricity networks.

Different analyses have placed the recovery costs between $12 and $20 billion.

So far, however, the Trump administration has pledged $300 million in humanitarian assistance, whereas Venezuela’s US-based frozen assets are valued at $11-13 billion. The White House also retains control over Venezuela’s oil export revenues, returning a portion of the funds to Caracas at its discretion.

Rodríguez announced on Wednesday that countries offering humanitarian aid can monitor its distribution through a digital platform used to coordinate deliveries across the 87 temporary shelters established for displaced families throughout the country. The acting president has vowed to prioritize the well-being of families who lost their homes and to provide new housing solutions in the coming months.

The latest official update placed the death toll from the earthquakes at 3,889, while the number of injured remains at 16,740 and the number of displaced people stands at 17,907.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, July 8, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez held a meeting with a military and diplomatic delegation from Israel on Tuesday.

The talks represented the first official engagement between Caracas and Tel Aviv since former President Hugo Chávez severed diplomatic relations in 2009.

According to Venezuelan state media reports, Rodríguez alongside Public Works Vice President Juan José Ramírez and Transport Minister Francisco Garcés sat down with Israeli officials to discuss plans for the removal of over 1 million tons of rubble from La Guaira state in the wake of June 24’s double earthquake.

For its part, the IDF indicated that its engineering personnel delivered a “national rehabilitation” plan to the Venezuelan government. Photos published on social media showed Brigadier General Elad Edri, chief of staff of the IDF Home Front Command, presenting a slide show titled “Project for the Reconstruction of the Future” with Venezuelan and Israeli flags. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry added that, at Rodríguez’s request, its delegation will stay in the Caribbean nation for two additional weeks to “begin implementing the reconstruction plan prepared by Israeli experts.”

Uniformed Israeli soldiers have toured multiple affected areas in Caracas and La Guaira, reportedly conducting inspections on damaged infrastructure. It has held multiple meetings with Venezuelan authorities, including a previous one with Ramírez in the Vicepresidency of Public Works. In a press conference last week, Rodríguez expressed her appreciation for the arrival of the “highly trained and professional” Israeli team.

It is not presently known whether the Israeli evaluations are being coordinated with similar assessments from specialized Venezuelan brigades.

“We are here primarily to assist in a natural disaster,” diplomat Yoed Magen said in a social media video. “Whenever we come to a country to advise or provide assistance, a relationship is formed and it can lead to a faster rapprochement.”

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez cut ties with Tel Aviv in 2009, fiercely denouncing Operation Cast Lead as “genocide” and voicing solidarity with the Palestinian people.

President Nicolás Maduro maintained his predecessor’s position excoriating Israeli military occupation and war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the June 2025 Twelve-Day War against Iran. The Maduro government publicly endorsed South Africa’s activation of the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

The mission has drawn backlash from the Chavista grassroots.

“[Israel] is a rogue nation. Its rulers are committing a genocide against the native people of Palestine and now they supposedly help Venezuela rescue [earthquake] victims and rebuild La Guaira,” Hindu Anderi, spokesperson for the Platform of Solidarity with the Palestinian cause, wrote on social media.

Venezuelan officials have reported 3,685 people killed in the earthquake as of July 7, more than 16,000 injured, and over 15,000 displaced families. A total of 190 buildings have collapsed, with hundreds more suffering various levels of damage.

The Venezuelan government has radically shifted its foreign policy after the January 3 US military strikes and kidnapping of Maduro. Apart from reestablishing diplomatic relations with Washington, Caracas has distanced itself from historic allies. During the recent US-Israel war against Iran, Caracas did not express support for Tehran, instead offering public backing for US Gulf allies such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The diplomatic rapprochement with the Trump administration has seen US forces hold military exercises in Caracas and conduct an extrajudicial execution in southeast Bolívar State.

Following the recent earthquakes, Washington expanded its footprint in the Caribbean nation, with 900 military personnel reportedly on the ground in Venezuela. After conducting repair works, US forces are currently running logistics and aid operations at La Guaira port and the Simón Bolívar International Airport.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

Mérida, July 7, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has launched a reconstruction program to recover damaged housing and infrastructure in the wake of the June 24 double earthquake.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez oversaw the official launch of the Great Mission Venezuela Renace (“Venezuela reborn”) on Monday, with dozens of brigades simultaneously deployed to evaluate the condition of affected structures. Officials have estimated 190 flattened buildings and 856 with some level of damage.

“Venezuela is a seismic country and we have to ensure that, from a technical standpoint, families are protected from risk,” she said during a televised broadcast in Caracas. “This reconstruction is a task for the whole country, and it’s not just about infrastructure.”

Technical brigades will classify buildings using a traffic-light code, with green meaning they are safe to be occupied, yellow meaning that they require work before families can move back in, and red that they must be cleared for significant repairs or demolition.

On Sunday, the acting president appointed Jacqueline Faría to head the new government program. She will be “responsible for coordinating and leading housing and infrastructure recovery efforts to provide timely assistance to families affected by the earthquakes.”

During a meeting with governors from affected states, Faría detailed the mission’s first purpose as generating “a diagnosis for action.” The Venezuelan official underscored the need for an exhaustive structural census for reconstruction work.

Faría, who has held multiple cabinet posts since 1999, will be replaced by Francisco Garcés as minister of transport.

The new mission is going to unify the existing infrastructure-oriented social programs “Barrio Nuevo, Barrio Tricolor,” “Juntos Todo Es Posible,” and “Venezuela Bella” to execute repairs and allow families to reoccupy their homes as soon as possible. 

Rodríguez announced that an initial US $200 million fund, set up with resources frozen by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be used for the reconstruction and recovery of the affected areas.

During a Saturday meeting with her economic team, the acting president reported talks with public and private banks “to activate the mortgage portfolio,” adding that loans would be subsidized up to 80 percent. Rodríguez went on to announce the exoneration of fees and taxes related to property transactions and a temporary ban on the export of construction materials.

The June 24 twin earthquakes, with 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude and their epicenter near Morón, Carabobo state, have left an official death toll of 3,685 and more than 16,000 injured. The search for bodies continues to be a priority task for Venezuelan teams and volunteers, especially in the coastal La Guaira State where most of the building collapses are concentrated.

Coordination of these search and rescue operations has been transferred to Venezuela’s Civil Protection agency. Unofficial counts estimate over 40,000 missing people.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has noted a growing displacement of affected families from La Guaira to other regions and has warned of the “many needs” of the population.

The wind-down of the search and rescue operations to find survivors has seen most of the foreign specialized teams leave the country in recent days. Venezuelan authorities have acknowledged the role played by international brigades and decorated them.

On July 4, acting President Delcy Rodríguez decorated US rescue teams with “Hero of Venezuela” and “Canine Heroes of Venezuela” medals. During the ceremony, the acting president thanked the American people for their help, expressing her wish that the rescuers “carry in their hearts part of the Venezuelan people.”

US emergency rescuers included the Los Angeles USAR International Team and Virginia’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1.

In addition to its emergency brigades, Washington also deployed hundreds of military personnel to the Caribbean nation following the natural disaster. US forces have taken control of operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport and La Guaira port after executing repair works. Helicopters and surveillance drones are likewise flying daily over the capital and surrounding areas.

Venezuela’s earthquake recovery efforts have also seen the controversial arrival of a diplomatic and military delegation from Israel led by Home Front Command Chief of Staff Brigadier General Elad Edri.

The Israeli mission has held multiple meetings with Venezuelan officials and, according to Edri, was asked by the Rodríguez government to evaluate infrastructure conditions and formulate a reconstruction plan.

In a press conference, the acting president expressed her appreciation for the arrival of the “highly trained and professional” Israeli team.

Caracas and Tel Aviv have not held diplomatic relations since former President Chávez severed ties in 2009. Both Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro recurrently condemned Israel for genocide and excoriated its war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Maduro administration publicly endorsed South Africa’s activation of the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

On June 24, Venezuela was struck by a devastating double earthquake that caused thousands of deaths and widespread destruction. In this infographic, we detail the facts and figures surrounding the disaster, as well as US military encroachment amid an ongoing sanctions regime.

(Click on the crosses for more information)

Click here to download the full infographic.

The U.S. has attacked Venezuela through various means for decades and kidnapped President Maduro but is now claiming to assist with earthquake relief. If it’s role in Haiti is any guide, that so-called aid from the U.S. is a Trojan Horse bringing more plunder and control.

For decades, the U.S. has waged a carefully planned and unrelenting attack on Venezuela’s economy using unilateral coercive measures, commonly known as economic sanctions, to destabilize and destroy the country’s socialist Bolivarian government. Though the earthquakes that devastated the nation were not caused by the U.S., the destabilization of the Venezuelan government, economy, and infrastructure was. The damage from those sanctions was so pervasive that any natural disaster large enough would be catastrophic, leading to foreign aid being used not only to produce enormous capitalist profits for foreign interests but also to bring the country more firmly under U.S. control. This is the situation Venezuela faces today.

George W. Bush imposed the first coercive measures against Venezuela in 2006. Democratically elected President Hugo Chávez had the nerve to criticize the U.S. for its bloodthirsty response to 9/11 and refused to support or participate in the U.S. sham counterterrorism efforts. Chávez did so in a very public and embarrassing way for Bush, as he declared from the lectern at the United Nations that George W. Bush was the devil, and that the podium that Bush had just delivered his own remarks from still smelled like sulfur. Bush responded by declaring Venezuela a state sponsor of terror along with Cuba and Iran (notice a pattern here). Bush also claimed that Venezuela refused to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements, breathing life into the claim that the Bolivarian government was a sponsor of narcoterrorism. But even before that, in 2004, Bush restricted non-humanitarian aid to the country, claiming they weren’t doing enough to stop human trafficking. Bush did all of this after the failed U.S.-backed coup against Chávez in 2002 that was tied to his administration. 

The aggression toward Venezuela did not end with the Bush presidency. In December 2014, Obama signed the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act after U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of State claimed that the Venezuelan government was committing human rights abuses against government opposition members. This was done in response to the Maduro government charging opposition members with engaging in conspiracies to overthrow him. Obama imposed sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials, and in  March 2015, he issued an Executive Order implementing these sanctions and expanded them to block their visas and freeze the U.S. property of the targets. Obama publicly declared Venezuela an “…extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States.” 

In response, President Maduro said in a nationally televised speech, “President Barack Obama, representing the U.S. imperialist elite, has personally decided to take on the task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to control it.” One of the impacted Venezuelan officials, Diosdado Cabello, said, “What is being planned are attacks against our land, against our country, military attacks.” It took the U.S. a few years, but…

President Donald Trump imposed more, wider-reaching economic coercive measures in 2017 during his first term. In addition to recognizing unelected opposition figure Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela, Trump also sanctioned the state-run oil company PDVSA, denying the government access to U.S. financial markets. He froze PDVSA’s assets and finally imposed a near-complete economic embargo on the country. And in 2020, the Trump Justice Department indicted President Maduro on charging the president and 14 others with narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and gun charges. It also accused him of coordinating with the leftist guerrilla peasant militia Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Founded as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, which sought to redistribute land and resources that the Colombian government denied to the desperately poor peasants in rural areas. After years of fighting with the government, FARC was officially dissolved in the 2016 Peace Accord with the Colombian government. They are now a legal left-wing political party, initially called the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force and later renamed the Comunes (Commons). Trump then issued a $15 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. Not to be outdone in attempting to enact regime change in Venezuela, President Joe Biden doubled the bounty to $25 million, with no additional indictments added.

The measures barred Venezuela from importing equipment, spare parts, and industrial chemicals to maintain its oil production facilities and shipping capabilities. Oil infrastructure across the country deteriorated, and oil production was driven far below the previous 3 billion barrels a day at its 2008 height to barely above 300,000 barrels a day.  

While many people accurately note that the U.S. is after control of Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves, the country’s mineral wealth is also crucial to the U.S. and much of the world, as it includes bauxite and rare earth minerals critical for weapons systems, satellite manufacturing, and AI technologies. When we consider the struggle we are engaging in to stop the proliferation of these technologies from being used to violate our privacy, whatever freedom we have left, our environment, and our very lives, consider that the U.S. pursuit of these materials has already directly caused the instability, suffering, worsened health outcomes, and deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans.

Venezuela relies largely on oil exports to fund its public sector commitments; the collapse of oil exports crippled its primary source of public revenue, making it impossible to import essential goods like food and medicine. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) estimated that 40,000 Venezuelans died due to economic coercive measures between 2018 and 2019 alone. Former U.S. Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated the deaths to have been over 100,000 by 2020. But this is neither unexpected nor unwanted by the U.S. government. Economic sanctions are designed to cause so much hardship for the people of a country that they will rise up in frustration and anger at their own government. U.S. officials understood that imposing economic sanctions on the country would prevent it from importing not just materials to maintain the oil sector but also necessities for the Venezuelan people, such as food, medicine, fuel, and even toilet paper. But public infrastructure, from hospitals and office buildings to apartment buildings and water systems, also fell into disrepair as materials needed to maintain it could not be imported due to sanctions. With the physical buildings weakened, the country was far more vulnerable to disasters like the June 2026 earthquakes than it would have been had the sanctions not been in place.

By the time Trump returned to the White House in 2024, despite the immense damage already done to the country’s economy and infrastructure, they had not done what successive U.S. presidents wanted: to bring about the collapse of the Bolivarian government in Venezuela. Trump imposed more measures after his return to office, doubled Biden’s bounty increase on Maduro to $50 million, and eventually carried out the violent kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores in the pre-dawn hours of January 3, 2026, with the help of the Navy and Marines of the Southern US Command (SOUTHCOM), which also carried out the indiscriminate murders of Caribbean fisherfolk in the months prior to the kidnapping. The bounty was never paid to anyone. He also added to the original 2020 indictment against Maduro by adding his now-kidnapped wife and National Assemblywoman Flores, and adding charges of “…narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.” They are both held in separate solitary confinement cells in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, NY, awaiting their sham trials.

It is an obscenity that the same SOUTHCOM is now deploying forces to Caracas to provide post-disaster air traffic and airport support. But it is a greater crime that the U.S. has positioned itself and its interests to finally get what it wants – control of Venezuela’s oil and minerals sectors and eventual privatization of public services that define the Socialist Bolivarian government – even if it is a natural disaster that provides them the perfect opportunity to achieve it. This, after expropriating Venezuela’s oil industry and profiting from selling the stolen crude, Trump sending a measly $150 million in “aid” to the country he stole their sovereign materials from is a settler colonial level insult.

This is “disaster capitalism,” popularized by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine, but a well-documented aspect of imperialist plunder. In the process of imposing economic shocks through sanctions by an external entity or through the implementation of neoliberal policies internally, Klein explains how governments and corporations exploit the shock of an unplanned, catastrophic event to impose radical, wholesale austerity and control. Disaster response becomes the vehicle for enormous foreign investment and development, foreign control of that development, and ultimately the usurpation of the existing but weakened state in favor of the foreign governments and corporate interests behind the aid money. Economic policies that would be rejected under normal circumstances are more easily imposed on an already vulnerable state when that state and its people are rendered desperate by a natural disaster. 

The use of disaster relief as a Trojan Horse for neoliberal plunder and control after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti may give us a terrifying vision of what could be in store for Venezuela today.

The earthquake in Haiti was used as a pretext for the US to assert near-total control over the country’s recovery, if not the country itself, along with its foreign allies in the UN-imposed Core Group that governs the island nation. Aid and reconstruction, and the billions of dollars for it, were directed by those and other foreign governments and contractors, bypassing the Haitian state under then-president René Préval. International entities justified this by claiming Haiti was hopelessly corrupt. What they were, however, was in disarray after the earthquake destroyed much of the government’s infrastructure, including the National Assembly and the National Palace, and years of imperialist control usurped its sovereignty. 

But this excuse was needed to justify the Haitian government seeing very little of the billions of dollars pledged for relief and reconstruction. The Associated Press reported in 2013 that CEPR found that out of the $1.15 billion pledged, only 1% went to Haitian companies. They found instead that “…the ‘vast majority’ of the money it could follow went straight to U.S. companies or organizations, more than half in the Washington area alone.” And what was constructed was for the benefit of foreign corporate and Haitian comprador interests, who had the protection of the United States government to bend Haiti to all of their will.  

The $224 million Caracol Industrial Park, built with reconstruction funds allocated through the recovery mission co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, is a continuing example of disaster capitalism and the nefarious ways that Western imperialists profit from natural and human catastrophe.

In 2011, scores of farmers and other residents were evicted from their fertile agricultural land, far from the impact zone, to make way for its construction. They were given little notice to leave and insufficient compensation. They fought for years to secure a reparations agreement with the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2018, which included new land, jobs, equipment, and other compensation. Many finally received reimbursement in 2020, but not all, and not nearly enough for what was taken from them by the U.S., the IDB, and USAID, who were the major funders of the project. 

The park was designed to attract foreign garment companies with tax exemptions and cheap labor, as wages were promised to be kept as low as $1.75 a day. The garment companies did come, and the Clintons promised hundreds of thousands of jobs. But fewer than 10,000 were produced, and they were at the same low rate of less than $2.00 a day that Haitians had been fighting to raise for years before the earthquake against a small group of Haitian manufacturing, import/export, and political elites controlling the country’s existing manufacturing industries with the backing of the U.S. government. When the Haitian government passed a law in 2009 to raise the country’s minimum wage for garment workers to $3 a day and $5 a day for other sectors due to the people’s agitation, foreign companies and the Haitian elite colluded with the U.S. State Department and, with a study from USAID that said raising the minimum wage would make the garment sector economically unviable, successfully blocked the legislation. 

While Bill and Hillary Clinton have never admitted involvement in suppressing Haitian wages, Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama when the State Department cables that WikiLeaks published revealed the covert wage-suppression scheme that resulted in legislation being passed in the U.S. to favor the Haitian elite and foreign investors: the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Acts I & II. There was no way the Clintons were not involved, as it was the Clinton Foundation through which they did much of their work in Haiti, and Haitians hold them responsible for the abysmal outcome.

By the end of 2011, one year after the earthquake, most of the promised aid had not been disbursed, and what was went to projects unrelated to housing, feeding, or providing any aid or support to the displaced, like the Caracol Industrial Park.  The scandal was compounded by revelations that some major aid organizations achieved very little with the funds they received, so no one could really account for where the billions of dollars went, other than into the pockets of non-Haitians. 

Today, Haiti is still among the poorest countries in the world. Haitians have continued to protest not just against the minimum wage, but also the lack of sovereignty and human dignity imposed upon them as they endure a rise in U.S.-fueled gang violence, attacks on Haitian immigrants from this administration, continued control from the UN-appointed Core Group with no elected leadership chosen by them, and another UN invasion/intervention to quell unrest. 

This is the future that the U.S. wants for Venezuela. To make Venezuela like Haiti or something close to it, at least in the manner of creating a dismantled state that the U.S. can swoop into, plunder, and control. Although Haiti and Venezuela may not be perfectly similar in many ways, but the use of an earthquake to further imperialist takeover of a country already weakened by relentless Western hegemony in response to the successful liberation struggle of largely Afro-descendent and Indigenous peasantry to free themselves from European settler colonial domination and capitalist exploitation are complementary examples of how a natural disaster is be used to deepen imperialist control under the guise of aid, instead of the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world using that power and money to help suffering human beings. And then the same country calls those states failed, and demonizes the government and the people as immature, unable to govern themselves, and an example of the failures of socialism or communism.

As U.S. officials are on the ground in Venezuela openly “coordinating” with the Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, it must be understood that this is done with the threat of her own indictment and imprisonment on bogus charges of narcotrafficking, human rights abuses, corruption, or grave robbing, depending on how amusing the U.S. wants to be with the sham accusations over her head. 

And now, the U.S. is poised to use this unbelievably tragic disaster as an even bigger cudgel to force the Venezuelan state to concede much, much more, seizing this opportunity to tighten its control over the country’s oil and mineral resources, effectively absorbing it into the U.S. sphere of influence, to be used as a weapon against the rest of the U.S.’s designated enemies, Cuba, China, and Russia. Venezuela has had friendly relations with all of these countries, and all countries that the U.S. is also softening up with sanctions, embargoes, and threats of worse treatment. 

We must expand and deepen the struggle against the U.S. re-colonization of the Western Hemisphere and join our struggling brothers and sisters in the Global South for an end to imperialist aggression, hegemony, and gangsterism, and we must target the enemy in whose camp we reside with clarity and purpose.

Because natural disasters will never stop happening. But disaster capitalism never has to happen again.

Not if we destroy capitalism and the empires that are erected upon it.

Jacqueline Luqman is a radical activist based in Washington, D.C., as well as a co-founder of Luqman Nation, an independent Black media outlet available on YouTube (here and here) and Facebook.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Black Agenda Report

Caracas, July 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander General Francis Donovan has announced the deployment of some 2,000 military personnel in response to Venezuela’s June 24 earthquakes.

“The US military, the Department of War, has roughly 2,000 teammates in the area on land, air, and sea around Venezuela,” Donovan said in a Wednesday press briefing. On Tuesday, Donovan told Reuters that US forces had 900 servicemen and women in Venezuelan territory.

The US general claimed that the military presence aims to improve logistics and that US forces will leave once “they are done.” He also expressed confidence that the mission would improve “military-to-military” relations with Venezuela.

Washington activated its response force in the wake of the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude double earthquakes that caused widespread destruction in the Caribbean nation, especially in coastal La Guaira State. The latest official figures reported 2,295 dead and over 11,000 injured, with thousands still declared missing.

Alongside specialized urban search and rescue units, US forces have also dispatched a significant contingent of Marines together with air and sea assets.

After carrying out repair works on a runway, the US Air Force’s Contingency Response Element (CRE) has been conducting “airfield management, air traffic coordination, communications, and security” at the Simón Bolívar International Airport. SOUTHCOM press releases have documented the arrival of multiple military transport aircraft, while MQ-9 Reaper drones and combat helicopters have conducted intelligence reconnaissance over Caracas and other affected areas.

US forces have likewise taken a position at La Guaira port with the docking of the amphibious USS Fort Lauderdale warship. US officials have assessed conditions and necessary works at the port and aim to establish a “vital command-and-control node” for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In a Thursday press conference, Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez thanked US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their “permanent contact and support.” She went on to acknowledge the US’ “major logistical deployment to receive humanitarian aid.”

Since the January 3 military strikes on Caracas and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has dramatically increased its foothold in the Caribbean nation. The Venezuelan legislature has approved multiple reforms catered to Western corporate interests, while oil export revenues are currently controlled by the US Treasury Department.

In addition, US forces ran military drills over Caracas on May 23 and conducted an extrajudicial execution of an alleged gang leader in southeastern Bolívar state in June in “coordination” with Venezuelan security forces.

Following the recent natural disaster, the US Treasury Department issued a time-limited license allowing relief-related transactions with Venezuela while maintaining its wide-reaching sanctions regime in place.

Washington and its allies likewise hold billions worth of Venezuelan frozen assets, including 31 tonnes of gold deposited at the Bank of England that the UK government has refused to release.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

[Updated on July 3 to include Rodríguez’s comments]

Caracas, July 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has welcomed an official Israeli delegation in the first significant bilateral engagement since Caracas severed ties with Tel Aviv in 2009.

In the wake of the devastating June 24 double earthquake, a joint civilian-military mission led by Israeli diplomat Yoed Magen landed in the South American country on Wednesday.

In a social media message, the IDF claimed its “humanitarian delegation” would “support recovery efforts” and share Israel’s “experience in emergency situations.”

The Israeli government confirmed the deployment of a “preliminary team” via its Spanish-language X account and announced further arrivals in the coming days.

“The remaining delegation members will incorporate themselves in the coming days. Expert teams will work alongside local authorities and collaborate in the reconstruction efforts,” the statement read.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil “received and thanked” the Israeli mission on behalf of the acting Delcy Rodríguez administration, claiming that  it was part of “international technical cooperation and support for the Venezuelan people.” In a Thursday night press conference, Rodríguez expressed her appreciation for the arrival of the “highly trained and professional” Israeli team and confirmed they were meeting with Venezuelan authorities to help evaluate damaged infrastructure.

The Israeli delegation includes a military contingent headed by Brigadier General Elad Edri, chief of staff of the IDF Home Front Command. It held meetings with Venezuelan Public Works Minister Juan José Ramírez and with Francisco Garcés, the head of a newly formed presidential commission tasked with evaluating the safety and habitability of infrastructure following the tremors.

Israeli nonprofits IsraAid and NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief had previously announced they were dispatching teams to Venezuela but their arrival has not been confirmed. Social media footage has shown the use of Israeli-made drones to conduct 3D-mappings of flattened buildings and locate possible survivors under the rubble.

The dispatch of the Israeli mission dovetails with a significant post-earthquake US military deployment. The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has reported 900 military personnel on the ground, while US forces are running logistics at the Simón Bolívar International Airport and La Guaira port.

Following the January 3 US military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the acting Rodríguez administration has fast-tracked a diplomatic rapprochement with Washington and radically reoriented its geopolitical alignments. During the recent US-Israel war against Iran, Caracas did not express support for its longtime ally in Tehran, instead offering public backing for US Gulf allies such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez severed ties with Tel Aviv in 2009, fiercely denouncing Operation Cast Lead as “genocide” and voicing solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Maduro maintained his predecessor’s policy position excoriating Israeli military occupation and war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the June 2025 Twelve-Day War against Iran. The Maduro government publicly endorsed South Africa’s activation of the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

The arrival of an Israeli mission has drawn backlash from the Chavista grassroots. Hindu Anderi, spokesperson for the Platform of Solidarity with the Palestinian cause, slammed the “hypocrisy” of Tel Aviv claiming the mantle of humanitarianism amid its ongoing genocides in Gaza and Lebanon.

“The Zionist regime wants to whitewash its record through rescue teams […] after condemning the Palestinian people to rubble,” she wrote on social media.

Venezuelan officials have reported 2,595 people killed in the earthquake as of July 2, more than 12,000 injured, and over 15,000 displaced families. The search and rescue operations have been backed by more than 4,000 foreign specialists from 30 countries.

Edited and with additional reporting by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

Caracas, June 30, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has created a Presidential Commission for the Assessment of Housing and Infrastructure Habitability following the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck the country on June 24.

The commission, chaired by structural engineer Francisco Garcés, began its work on Monday, June 29, in the states of La Guaira and Miranda, as well as in Caracas, carrying out scientific and technical evaluations of buildings, bridges, overpasses, and road infrastructure.

The inspections will deliver a traffic light-style assessment system developed by the Venezuelan Seismological Research Foundation (FUNVISIS) and the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) to classify the level of structural damage through a rating system that is easily understood by the public.

“We have created a traffic light system to determine whether a building is habitable, using the colors green, yellow, and red, so that this commission on housing and infrastructure can decide whether a home is safe to continue occupying,” Rodríguez said during a televised broadcast on Monday.

Under the system, green identifies homes that are structurally stable and safe for occupancy without significant risk. Yellow indicates buildings with moderate or partial damage that require repairs before they can be safely reoccupied, while red designates structures that have suffered total loss or critical structural damage.

“We have found buildings whose structural systems—beams, columns, and frame structures—have not sustained significant damage. However, the masonry has been severely affected. This means these buildings are repairable but cannot be inhabited until damaged walls and enclosure elements are removed and rebuilt,” Garcés explained to Venezuelan media.

The commission brings together specialists from the Ministry of Habitat and Housing, the Ministry of Public Works, the Venezuelan College of Engineers, the Venezuelan Chamber of Construction, Funvisis, and the Engineering Corps of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.

It is also supported by several academic institutions and will coordinate efforts with governors’ and mayors’ offices from the hardest-hit regions.

“We have deployed several teams of engineers specialized in structural engineering,” Garcés added. “After receiving training in the use of the damage assessment forms, they are able to determine the condition of a structure and recommend the appropriate course of action.”

The acting government has also launched training programs so that professors, graduates, and senior engineering students with the required technical background can join the inspection teams. Authorities say the initiative likewise aims to address public fears among residents who remain hesitant to return to their homes.

Rodríguez additionally announced plans to build thousands of new homes by the end of the year.

According to official figures, the earthquakes have left 189 buildings completely destroyed as well as 585 structures with severe damage or partial collapse. There have been 38 hospitals and 44 shopping malls affected, and 1,645 additional structures, mainly bridges and roads, have sustained damage.

Multiple corporate media outlets have launched claims that the buildings from Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV) were especially damaged by the earthquake. However, analysis from open-source tracking of damaged buildings has shown that only a very small percentage of affected structures belong to the housing mission. Former President Hugo Chávez launched the massive program in 2011 to provide housing at next-to-no cost for working-class families.

So far, Venezuelan authorities have reported 1,943 dead, 10,571 injured, and over 15,000 displaced families as a result of the double earthquake. The disaster has seen emergency teams arrive from 27 countries to assist in search-and-rescue operations. For its part, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has deployed multiple military assets and is managing operations at Simón Bolívar International Airport, the South American country’s main air hub.

Alongside the disaster in Venezuela’s northern central region, the Caribbean nation has been struck by further emergencies in recent days. Torrential rains caused rivers to overflow in western Portuguesa state, leaving an initial toll of 100 displaced families. Further west, firefighters have been working to bring forest fires under control since last Friday.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Mérida, June 29, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan and international rescue teams continue to search for survivors under collapsed buildings following last Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude tremors caused widespread destruction, primarily in the coastal state of La Guaira, which has been described as “ground zero.” Geological services have registered more than 500 aftershocks since the original earthquakes.

On Monday, Venezuelan officials reported that there have been 1,719 people killed, 5,034 injured, and more than 15 thousand displaced. According to the country’s authorities, 855 buildings have been damaged, including 189 totally collapsed, along with damage to 38 hospitals and 1,645 road structures.

“We are in critical and crucial hours to continue saving lives,” National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez stated during a Monday press conference. He confirmed that over 25,000 rescue workers, including military personnel, police, firefighters, and civil protection units, are currently deployed, supported by 3,319 international rescuers from 25 nations and 137 specialized canines.

Rodríguez added that 90% of electricity service has been restored in La Guaira State, and that a special hotline remains active to provide psychological support to relatives of the victims, displaced people, and those suffering from post-traumatic stress following the earthquakes.

Earlier on Monday, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez celebrated the rescue of 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo, who was pulled alive from the rubble in La Guaira after being trapped for 106 hours. The rescue was the result of 43 hours of intense, coordinated work by Venezuelan Civil Protection and brigades from Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. Emergency workers have warned that, as time passes, the probability of still finding survivors drastically decreases.

Over the weekend, the Venezuelan government has likewise ramped up efforts to tend to displaced families, with 15 temporary shelters set up in La Guaira and a further 50 in Caracas.

Other areas beyond La Guaira have also been severely impacted. Local residents reported structural damage and service failures in Morón, Carabobo state, close to the earthquakes’ epicenters. Similarly, in Tucacas, Falcón state, residents called for assistance from authorities as they face interrupted electricity or water services.

As part of its response to the crisis, the acting Rodríguez government restricted access to the state of La Guaira, the hardest-hit area. The measure aims to prevent traffic congestion and prioritize the movement of emergency vehicles and heavy machinery. Venezuelan officials have urged the public to avoid traveling to the area to ensure that rescue efforts are not impeded.

At the same time, authorities have sought to organize volunteer brigades, both for search and rescue operations and to tend to temporary shelters, via a registration center at the Poliedro complex in Caracas. 

As of June 29, 10,834 volunteers had registered, and they have been categorized according to their area of expertise: survivor rescue, medical care, logistics at temporary camps, and other essential tasks.

Following the double earthquake, the United States government has ramped up its presence in the Caribbean nation. The US Department of State has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and specialized urban search and rescue units.

The Department of War has sent an expeditionary airfield management team to repair and reopen the damaged Simón Bolívar International Airport, which is now serving as the primary hub for international relief flights. The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has stated that it is currently “managing tower and ground operations” at the country’s most important airport.

SOUTHCOM is also assessing conditions at the port of La Guaira and has docked the USS Fort Lauderdale warship to coordinate maritime deliveries. Various aircraft, including C-17 Globemaster, C-130 Hercules, MV-22 Ospreys, and helicopters, have conducted aerial surveys and transported rescue teams and supplies. 

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez personally thanked President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for US support following the natural disaster. In a social media message, the acting president said she was “deeply grateful for this gesture of friendship and cooperation.”

The Trump administration announced that humanitarian assistance to Venezuela has been increased to over $300 million. However, Washington has not offered any relief from widespread economic sanctions, only issuing a time-limited license allowing earthquake relief-related transactions.

The White House also retains control over Venezuelan oil export revenues, with the disbursement timings and amounts left at US officials’ discretion.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, June 26, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan casualties from Thursday’s double earthquake continue to rise amid ongoing search and rescue efforts to remove survivors from flattened buildings.

On Thursday night, Venezuelan authorities reported 235 people dead and over 4,300 injured. There are 250 buildings with serious damage or completely collapsed. 

The death toll is expected to rise sharply with unofficial missing people databases compiling more than 40,000 unaccounted persons. However, the figure has steadily decreased in recent hours, while organizers have also pledged to remove duplicate filings.

Social media channels have been flooded with reports of missing friends and relatives.

The Caribbean nation was struck by 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in quick succession on Wednesday. The tremors were concentrated in central and northern states, including the capital. Coastal La Guaira State was the worst affected, with government officials reporting over 100 collapsed buildings.

Search and rescue efforts continued on Thursday as civil protection teams and volunteers rushed to locate survivors and remove them from under the rubble. The Venezuelan government called on the private sector to collaborate with heavy machinery. Several areas of La Guaira are also hard to reach.

Venezuelan grassroots organizations also mobilized, organizing the collection of food, clothes and medicines for displaced families and setting up makeshift shelters.

Videos on social media showed the Venezuelan armed forces likewise moving equipment and mobile surgical units to the coastal area. Commercial flights to and from Simón Bolívar International Airport airport in La Guaira, the main air hub serving Caracas, have been temporarily suspended following damage to a major runway and the air traffic control tower.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez visited the most affected areas on Thursday afternoon and oversaw ongoing efforts to deploy heavy machinery and provide food and shelter for displaced families.

“We express our support and solidarity to all those affected and we hope to find as many survivors as possible,” she told reporters. “We are working around the clock and we have called for international assistance.”

Venezuelan efforts were reinforced on Thursday night with the arrival of emergency teams from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. Additional brigades are reportedly on the way from Colombia, Brazil, and the US, among others.

Alongside search and rescue teams, the US Department of War announced a deployment of logistical support assets.

In a statement, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the deployment of the amphibious transport ship USS Fort Lauderdale and the littoral combat ship USS Billings alongside Hercules transport aircraft. Marine Corps Major General Kevin J. Jarrard landed on Thursday night and will reportedly oversee the efforts.

The Trump administration is providing $150 million in humanitarian aid to be channeled through “assistance” partners including Catholic Relief Services and multiple UN agencies.

Washington has, however, opted to maintain its punishing economic sanctions regime against the South American country. On Thursday, the US Treasury Department issued General License 60 (GL60) authorizing transactions related to earthquake relief efforts. However, Venezuelan assets abroad, including bank accounts, remain frozen, meaning that aid efforts will still face hurdles or require US approval.

Caracas has also been unable to access around $4.8 billion in gold held by the Bank of England as well as nearly $5 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights issued during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Since January, the Trump administration has issued multiple sanctions waivers to allow Western corporations to secure favorable energy and mining agreements with the acting Rodríguez government. Transactions between Caracas and its historic allies in China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran continue to be prohibited by the waivers and subject to secondary sanctions. The White House has likewise seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, disbursing a portion back to Caracas at US officials’ discretion.

Edited and with additional reporting by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

Caracas, June 25, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela suffered two successive major earthquakes on Thursday afternoon that caused devastating damage.

Authorities reported that 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart just after 6 pm. The epicenters were close to San Felipe, Yaracuy State, some 120 kilometers west of Caracas.

The tremors strongly shook central and northern Venezuela and were felt as far as Brazil and Colombia. Geological services registered 20 aftershocks in the following hours.

Emergency services, firefighters, and civil protection brigades were immediately deployed. Videos circulated on social media showed collapsed infrastructure in parts of the capital and nearby towns and rescue teams removing rubble to reach survivors.

Reports from the coastal of La Guaira showed completely devastated areas with rows of destroyed buildings.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez addressed the nation on Thursday night and again in the early hours of Friday, calling for calm and unity in the wake of the natural disaster and declaring a state of emergency.

Rodríguez decreed a suspension of educational and “non-essential” activities, as well as the Caracas metro and suburban trains. The Simón Bolívar airport in nearby Maiquetía was likewise temporarily shut down.

“The priority right now is to save lives,” the acting president told press. “Later we will address the material reconstruction.” Rodríguez gave a preliminary figure of 32 dead and over 700 injured.

The acting president called the situation in La Guaira “a real tragedy” and a “disaster zone” with dozens of collapsed buildings. She expressed condolences to relatives of victims and urged Venezuelans to report missing people or damaged infrastructure via a dedicated phone app.

Rodríguez went on to call on people to evacuate buildings with visible structural damage and urged medical personnel to report to their stations as soon as possible.

During her press conference, Rodríguez thanked multiple countries for expressing solidarity and offering support, and announced the imminent arrival of rescue teams from the US, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Qatar.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on social media that Washington is “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”

Caracas additionally received support from Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, and a host of other nations. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that specialized rescue teams are being prepared and that her government is in contact with Venezuelan counterparts.

Some areas of the capital and nearby states remained without electricity hours after the earthquakes. Authorities temporarily disconnected the direct supply of cooking gas to avoid secondary fires.

Story in development.