Deadly earthquakes strike Venezuela, killing at least 32 and injuring 700

Back-to-back magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck central Venezuela less than a minute apart, killing at least 32 people and injuring about 700 as night fell near Caracas. The U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicentral area about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, west of the capital, and said the first quake was reported around 6:04 p.m. local time on June 24, during the Battle of Carabobo holiday.

Venezuelan authorities declared a state of emergency, closed Maiquetia International Airport and suspended classes while health workers and rescue crews moved into the hardest-hit areas. Nearly two dozen aftershocks followed, adding to the strain on neighborhoods already shaking under the main ruptures. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said buildings and homes had collapsed, and emergency crews kept searching rubble through the evening.

The worst damage was reported in Caracas’s Altamira district, where crews rescued survivors from a 22-storey building, while El Paraiso and La Guaira also suffered heavy destruction. The U.S. Geological Survey warned that high casualties and extensive damage were probable, a grim signal that the toll could climb as teams reached more damaged blocks and more people were accounted for.

Washington moved quickly to prepare a response. The U.S. government said it was mobilizing assistance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would immediately send search teams, medical aid and humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The quake’s impact reached beyond the immediate death and injury figures, landing in a country whose capital has long faced seismic danger and whose relief network now has to move through airport closures, damaged buildings and widespread aftershocks.

Caracas has lived through this kind of disaster before. The July 29, 1967 earthquake killed an estimated 225 to 300 people and injured about 1,536, a reminder that the capital sits in a zone where a major quake can become a regional emergency in minutes.