Death toll on the rise in quake-struck Venezuela amid humanitarin crisis

By James Blears

Almost 3,900 people are confirmed dead after the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June. According to authorities, 16,740 people were injured, and almost 18,000 have been left homeless.

28 countries across the world are providing assistance in the form of donations, teams of search and rescue experts, logistics, and management of water and sanitation, but the situation on the ground is catastrophic.

Already severely weakened by years of stringent, hard hitting, deep biting U.S. led economic sanctions, the natural disaster wrought by the two back-to-back earthquakes significantly worsened the plight of thousands, further crumpling and crumbling infrastructure plus the thin fabric of daily lives.

The Northern State of Guaira is especially critically affected. Acute shortages of fresh drinking water, food, daily essentials and medicines have seen a spike in gnawing hunger, diarrhoea, and skin rashes. While the treatment of heart, high blood pressure and diabetic conditions is in real trouble.

The United Nations has launched a multi-million-dollar humanitarian appeal. Yet, it’s going to take bushels upon hectares of cash and years, if not decades, for Venezuela to recoup, regroup and revamp from the tent cities and makeshift dwellings sheltering people with hungry eyes and flat stomachs.

Ironic that Venezuela is sitting atop vast oil reserves. But years of neglect and an obdurate unwillingness of international petroleum companies, who previously burned and then singed their fingers, mean that Venezuela is mired in this morass for the long haul.