Venezuela earthquakes: Death toll, injuries rise as search for survivors continues

Thousands feared deadened in republic of venezuela after consecutive earthquakes

Videos from Venezuela show building crumble, piles of rubble after quakes

How back-to-back earthquakes hit Venezuela

Canada to provide Venezuela earthquake humanitarian aid, Carney says

Caracas quakes evokes memories of 1967, Canadian's family says

How unusual are back-to-back quakes? We asked a seismologist

People walk past a collapsed building in Caracas Thursday.

People walk inside a damaged apartment building in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Thursday.

Emergency services work at the site of a collapsed building in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday.

Rescue worker carry an injured man after earthquakes in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday.

Rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after earthquakes in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday.

Damage could also be seen in Valencia, Venezuela's third-largest city.

Photos show cracks running through the Basílica Catedral de Valencia. In an Instagram post  on Thursday, parish priest Joel de Jesús Núñez Flautes wrote that both towers of the cathedral are fractured and the cathedral and parish office will be closed until further notice.

"Let's keep Venezuela in our prayers," Flautes wrote in Spanish.

At least 188 people have been killed by the twin earthquakes, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly said Thursday afternoon. 

Jorge Rodriguez says another 1,520 people have been reported injured and 200 are known to be trapped. 

Earlier, Venezuelan officials said initial casualty figures did not include those killed and injured in the hard-hit coastal region of La Guaira.

Canada to provide Venezuela earthquake humanitarian aid, Carney says

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is looking to direct humanitarian aid to Venezuela as death tolls rise after two earthquakes struck near the country's capital on Wednesday. Carney added that Venezuela and Iran are examples of countries where Canada lacks a diplomatic presence, 'and that puts us at a disadvantage.'

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is preparing to provide humanitarian assistance in Venezuela. 

"This obviously is a fast-developing tragedy," Carney said at a news conference in Ottawa. He said Canada is "moving to provide humanitarian aid" and that more details are expected later today.

Carney said Canada is working directly with international partners and will "scale those [efforts] as appropriate." He said that responding to the disaster is complicated by Canada's limited diplomatic presence in Venezuela.

"One of the challenges I've discovered… is that there are a series of countries with whom we have not seen eye to eye, to put it mildly, where we do not have representation in the countries," he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says the suffering is "heartbreaking" and "many are facing unbearable days ahead without shelter, food or certainty."

Global Affairs Canada officials are in touch with regional partners and aid groups, and Anand said Canada will "contribute to humanitarian efforts as appropriate."

Canada and Venezuela have not formally severed relations but Ottawa closed its Caracas embassy in June 2019 after Venezuela refused to renew expiring visas for diplomats.

Canada is one of several countries supporting Venezuelan opposition leaders following an election that was widely viewed as stolen.

Jesús Armas is out in some of the worst-affected parts of Caracas today, working with his neighbours to try and help any way they can — but he says it's just not enough.

People are sitting on their mattresses in the streets with nowhere to go, he says. There's not enough food or water to go around. He can hear screams from under the rubble, but first responders don't have the necessary equipment to save the survivors. 

He blames his government for this.

Earthquakes are not unexpected in Venezuela, and he says authorities should have been readying an emergency preparedness plan back when the country's oil industry was still  booming.

Now he fears acting President Delcy Rodriguez — who has been making speeches about Venezuelan unity — will exploit the crisis for her own benefit.

"There's unity between Venezuelans, but not because of the government," he said. "I don't doubt that Delcy Rodriguez is thinking right now how to use this situation to stay in power and to avoid a free and fair election in Venezuela."

Most of Venezuela's oil production facilities are located in the centre of the country and were largely unaffected by the earthquakes, according to reports by international news agencies. 

The Morón Petrochemical Complex, Venezuela's second-largest in operation, is located near the epicentres of the back-to-back quakes and sustained some unspecified damage. But workers were restarting the facility on Thursday morning, a local fire chief told Reuters. 

Chevron, the main foreign partner of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA, said all employees were accounted for and its operations were continuing. Chevron has three onshore projects located in western and eastern Venezuela that focus on heavy crude, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Venezuela produced 900,000 to 1 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2025, but has ramped up production since the U.S. Intervention that unseated Maduro in January. The country exported 1.25 million barrels per day in May, mostly to the U.S., India and Europe, Reuters reported. 

This is a composite image of Residencias Rita Sol Palace, an apartment building in Caraballeda, Venezuela.

Caraballeda is a town on the central coast of the Caribbean Sea. Residencias Rita Sol Palace has its apartments listed on several booking sites, such as VRBO, for rooms close to the beach.

Photos are beginning to come in that show the scale of destruction Wednesday's earthquakes. We'll share them as we verify them.

The beachfront retreat located on Avenida La Playa had 106 rooms, according to travel website Trivago. It also had a large restaurant.

A note posted to the hotel's Instagram page Thursday said rescue teams were urgently needed.

Venezuelans are searching for loved ones who are believed to be buried under rubble in collapsed buildings.

The Petunia building in Caracas' Chacao neighborhood, which is roughly 14 storeys, was among those that collapsed. The mayor of the municipality has said at least four others collapsed in the district. 

Juan Diego Cremi, 23, and his girlfriend, Sabrina Bolognesi, 22, are among those believed to be buried under the rubble. 

The two were in the building with Juan Diego's sister, Sofia, and another friend, Victoria Delgado. Both Sofia and Victoria were removed from the rubble around midnight on Wednesday and are in stable condition. The two others, they believed, were with them in the process of fleeing the building, but then disappeared. 

"We are holding out faith in those international teams that are coming," said Marianella Cremi la Riva, another sister of Juan Diego. "We are just asking everyone to pray for us so that they come out of there well and with their lives."

These two shallow quakes, centered in heavily populated areas, have meant absolute devastation for the country of Venezuela.

As reported earlier on this page, comparisons are being drawn to the 1967 quake that killed 300.

Yesterday’s event is expected to be at least 33 times as deadly.

The current death toll figure is 164, but the USGS is expecting the death toll to be at least 10,000.

Here's a chart putting that in perspective.

The Canadian Red Cross says the immediate response to the earthquakes is being led by local responders, but that Canada is ready to help. 

"I think it's quite likely that there will need to be international assistance, particularly from Canada, for this response," Lemon said. 

Though rescue efforts are underway and remain the priority, Lemon said the humanitarian response will quickly shift toward caring for survivors and restoring essential services. 

Roads have been cut off, health facilities are operating at limited capacity and many survivors are likely to have traumatic injuries, she said.

"Supporting the health facilities and capacities over the next weeks will be really important," Lemon said. Longer-term priorities over the next four to six weeks will include temporary shelter, food, access to safe drinking water and rebuilding damaged infrastructure.

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