La GAIRA, Venezuela — Angelica Mundrain is desperate to retrieve the bodies of her son, niece and nephew from the collapsed beachfront apartment. For six days she has been waiting for the heavy machinery required to lift the concrete slabs and twisted metal that trapped them.
Many other Venezuelan earthquake survivors share the same wait.
They, like others throughout the northern state of La Guaira, ask the same question: Who is in charge? Venezuela’s self‑described socialist government, which once positioned itself as protector and provider, has failed to act when it mattered most, many say.
The twin earthquakes that struck on June 24 have exposed the inability of the party that has ruled Venezuela for 27 years — now led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez — to perform even basic governmental functions.
‘We have been abandoned,’ Mundrain said, sitting on a street chair in front of the ruins of the 11‑story building that was once her home. ‘We feel helpless. What we have witnessed is a lack of organization, empathy and everything else.’
In the critical 72 hours after residential buildings, eateries, pharmacies, hotels and shops collapsed in La Guaira, Caracas and surrounding areas, the on‑the‑ground response was essentially limited to traffic direction, with police, intelligence officers and members of the armed forces manning intersections.
Mostly alone, and occasionally aided by foreign rescuers, civilians searched for loved ones amidst piles of rubble. Ambulances became trapped in traffic jams that stretched for miles. Hospitals were understaffed and lacked supplies. Emergency personnel arrived with little or no equipment.
A week later, many residents of the coastal communities of La Guaira credited most rescues and recoveries to fellow Venezuelans and foreign teams equipped with thermal cameras, sound detectors and trained dogs. They also noted that while civilians and foreign rescuers were actively digging, men and women in Venezuelan uniforms stood by and state workers took selfies.
Tulane University professor David Smilde, who has studied Venezuela for three decades, said the tragedy makes clear that the stunning Jan. 3 capture of then‑President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces was not an isolated incident in which the Venezuelan state completely failed to protect itself.
‘It also cannot even begin to dig people out,’ he said, adding that this should be a major concern for Rodriguez, who was sworn in after Maduro was deposed and taken to New York to face drug‑trafficking charges.
Smilde said the dismal response is tied to the large numbers of public‑sector workers who have left due to extremely low pay and corruption — many on the government payroll for months or years without working. In a functional government, specific duties would include designing protocols that outline emergency procedures such as earthquakes.
‘It’s like trying to field a baseball team with only three people. You don’t know who will be the pitcher, the catcher, or the outfielder,’ he said of the government’s lack of organization.
Wealth and government connections also shaped the response, with some sites receiving preferential treatment.
When one collapsed building was swarming with police officers and military cadets, observers correctly inferred that officials or politically connected individuals must have lived there. Police from a neighboring state were searching for a captain, while the cadets and a few National Guard members were hoping to locate a major general.
A telescopic crane — exactly the kind Mundrain needs for her family’s recovery — had been parked for several hours at the building’s entrance. The relatives of the well‑off families who lived there were able to rent it, while Mundrain cannot.
‘I think that if someone in a position of authority were present in each of these apartments, there would be a well‑oiled machine operating like in other residences,’ Mundrain said, pointing to her building.
Public anger over the response has also sparked confrontations between residents and equipment operators. In one case, when a government‑provided excavator tried to leave the site of a flattened public‑housing building, people blocked traffic to keep it in place and even pulled the operator from the cab.
‘You see the guards, and their uniforms are spotless, not dirty at all,’ Castillo said, contrasting members of Venezuela’s National Guard with dust‑covered civilians and foreign rescuers who have been digging through rubble for days. ‘The government did nothing.’
