The death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela on Wednesday morning has climbed to 235, with hundreds more injured and thousands displaced, as a UK-led international rescue operation arrives in Caracas. The 7.3 magnitude quake, which hit the country’s central region at 5:47 a.m. local time, flattened entire neighbourhoods in poorer districts, leaving families scrambling through rubble for survivors. For the working class of Caracas, already battered by years of hyperinflation and shortages, this disaster has torn apart the fragile threads of daily life.
Rescue teams from the UK, including 67 specialist firefighters and search dogs, landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport this evening, coordinating with local authorities to dig through collapsed homes and buildings. The British government has pledged £4.5 million in emergency aid, but for those on the ground, the urgency is raw. One rescue worker, speaking from the wreckage of the El Valle barrio, described scenes of mothers holding babies, their faces caked in dust, waiting for news of missing relatives.
This is not just a natural disaster. It is an economic catastrophe for a nation where the average salary buys barely a loaf of bread. Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy has been in freefall, with inflation projected to hit 1,000,000 per cent this year. The earthquake has destroyed critical infrastructure: roads, hospitals, and water pipes. For the urban poor, who live in precariously built concrete blocks, the shaking was a death sentence. In Petare, one of Latin America’s largest slums, entire hillsides collapsed, burying homes and families.
Union leader Elena Rojas, from the Venezuelan Workers’ Confederation, told me: “This government has failed to maintain buildings for years. Now we pay with lives. Our members need not just tents and food, but a guarantee that future construction will be safe. We cannot bury our dead while the rich in Altamira live untouched.” Her words echo a deeper anger: the divide between the elite and the struggling is measured in the distance between a crumbling shack and a fortified tower.
UK International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said: “Our thoughts are with the Venezuelan people. We are deploying the best of British expertise to save lives.” But as the search continues, the cost of this tragedy will be counted in more than bodies. It will be counted in the lost wages of builders, the empty stalls of market vendors, and the children who now sleep on floors of community centres.
For the people of Caracas, the aftershocks are still shuddering through their bones. And the real economy, the one that pays for bread and rents, is yet to be rebuilt.
