Twin Quakes Kill at Least 164 in Venezuela, Acting President Says

At least 164 people died and 971 were injured after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Thursday, as rescue teams raced to free people trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

The back-to-back quakes hit Wednesday evening and registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, according to the Associated Press. They rank among the strongest to hit the country in more than a century.

Rodríguez singled out La Guaira state, north of Caracas on the coast, as one of the worst-hit areas and called it a “disaster zone” because so many buildings had fallen.

Dozens of buildings have collapsed there … and we are currently carrying out intensive rescue operations to save lives. — Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of Venezuela

State television showed three children pulled alive from the rubble in La Guaira, covered in dust. Rodríguez said authorities were moving rescue teams from other parts of the country to the state.

Officials wanted to use the daylight hours to reach people still believed trapped, she said.

Television broadcasts Thursday showed rescue workers cutting into mounds of rubble with power tools. In Caracas, frightened residents had rushed into the streets, and many later searched the debris for missing relatives among fallen buildings and downed power poles.

Video circulating online appeared to show dozens of people being treated outside a hospital in La Guaira, some on the ground and others on hospital beds.

The shaking reached far beyond Venezuela. People felt it across the region, and crews evacuated buildings as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, roughly 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Caracas, the capital.

The country’s main airport was damaged and shut down.

Rodríguez asked businesses to lend heavy construction equipment for the rescue effort and said United Nations-certified search and rescue teams were heading to Venezuela.

Foreign governments offered aid within hours. U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States “stands ready, willing, and able to help” and said he had told all government agencies “to get ready to move quickly.” He called the quakes “both massive in scale” and said early reports were “not good.”

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said on X that 300 rescuers and paramedics were ready to fly to Caracas with 50 tons of equipment, medicine and supplies.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X that her government had been in contact with Venezuela and was preparing aid, saying Caracas had asked for specialized rescue and medical personnel.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent his country’s “thoughts and support” on X and said France would deploy 85 rescue workers.

Venezuela lies near several fault lines, but its location straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes less frequent there than in other parts of Latin America.