Foreign rescue teams, including three based in the U.S., kept searching for survivors after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela’s northern coast on June 24. Venezuelan officials said more than 1,430 people were killed and more than 3,200 injured, with the toll e
For the third day, rescuers kept moving through dust and broken concrete along Venezuela’s northern coast—because the clock doesn’t wait when buildings collapse.
An 11-year-old boy was pulled out alive from rubble in Caraballeda. in the coastal state of La Guaira. Delcy Rodríguez. Venezuela’s interim president. said on X. In her post. she shared video showing rescue workers carrying the youngster out on a stretcher. writing that “every life is a source of hope for Venezuela.” Earlier. Rodríguez said 33 people had been rescued so far. including several children.
The hope is real, but it is thinning fast. “There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, told Reuters on June 27.
That urgency has driven an increasingly crowded response. The two earthquakes—magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5—hit within one minute of each other on June 24, devastating the region. As foreign teams poured in. Venezuelan officials said more than 1. 600 international search and rescue teams were in the country. with more on the way. Among the units arriving were elite emergency teams based in Fairfax County. Virginia; Los Angeles County. California; and Miami-Dade County. Florida.
In Caracas and across La Guaira. workers were dispatched as families and volunteers continued pulling survivors and bodies from wreckage despite a lack of heavy equipment and limited guidance from authorities. In Caraballeda, Reuters reported U.S. helicopters repeatedly ferrying rescue workers into a dusty landing zone.
Outside the rescue area, the numbers have been grim and fast-changing. Venezuelan authorities said at least 1,430 people had been killed and more than 3,200 injured. One lawmaker said more than 3,000 have been left homeless. The death toll was already reported to have eclipsed 1,400, and it is expected to rise further, with U.S. Geological Survey data estimating more than 10,000 casualties are possible.
The diplomatic thread has run alongside the search. On June 26, Rodríguez—whose predecessor was removed by the U.S. in a January raid—conferred by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rodríguez said both “reaffirmed the support of the United States government at this difficult moment for Venezuela.”.
As rescuers continued scanning for signs of life, Pope Leo XIV also addressed the disaster. On June 28, he told worshippers in Rome that he wanted “to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes” and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.
Even with new survivors pulled from rubble, tens of thousands remain unaccounted for. That gap—between the people found and the people still missing—has become the defining pressure point as teams work against the narrowing odds of survival.
Venezuela earthquake rescue teams Caraballeda La Guaira Delcy Rodríguez Donald Trump Marco Rubio U.S. helicopters Swiss rescue team U.S. Geological Survey