REGINA GARCIA CANO and JUAN PABLO ARRAEZ (Associated Press) || Meteorologist: Katie Walls
•6/25/2026
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Rescue teams raced Thursday to the areas hardest hit by a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked northern Venezuela, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000 and trapping many beneath collapsed buildings.
Wednesday evening’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region. Damage was particularly bad in the coastal region of La Guaira, which is north of Caracas, the capital.
The country’s main airport was damaged and closed, while buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Caracas.
Television broadcasts Thursday showed rescue workers using power tools to work their way into piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Panicked residents of the capital were sent pouring into the streets, and after the quakes many people walked among the debris searching for the missing among collapsed buildings and toppled electric poles.
In La Guaira, Cristian Carreño stared stunned at his charred apartment building tilting precariously to one side.
“I lost everything. Everything,” he said. “There are people still inside, I imagine, that couldn’t get out. It’s incredibly devastating.”
Offers of help poured in from around the world, including from the United States, which seized Venezuela’s then-president Nicolas Maduro at the beginning of the year in a surprise military operation.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who gave the latest death toll early Thursday, said authorities were shifting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira. Officials were trying to make the most of the daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed to remain trapped under the rubble, she said.
Footage on state TV showed three children, covered in dust but alive, pulled from the rubble in La Guaira state, where a large number of buildings collapsed and which Rodríguez described as a “disaster zone.”
“Dozens of buildings have collapsed there ... and we are currently carrying out intensive rescue operations to save lives,” Rodríguez said.
Video shared online appeared to show dozens of people, some lying on the ground and others on hospital beds, being treated outside a hospital in La Guaira. While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
Rodríguez appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations, adding that search and rescue teams certified by the United Nations were on their way to Venezuela.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas. It had a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles). Just a minute later, USGS reported a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake, with a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) and an epicenter 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Moron.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged people to remain outside as aftershocks could further damage structures, and many people stayed on the streets for hours, some sitting on the ground hugging pets as dust gathered around them.
During the quakes, people ran from swaying buildings in Venezuela, many visibly shocked when they turned back to see destroyed walls that left furniture visible from the street.
Venezuelans in disaster-stricken regions were left reeling Thursday morning as they crowded in streets, peered stunned at dilapidated buildings and searched for their missing loved ones.
In La Guaira, a man wearing only shorts climbed down the face of an apartment building tilted at a dangerous angle as a crowd watched.
Dayana Delgado, mother of three children, said she was desperate because her 8-year-old was missing.
“I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter,” she said.
Delgado questioned where the heavy machinery that government officials had promised was, pointing out that neighbors were the ones digging through the rubble.
In downtown Caracas, hundreds of people spent the night huddled around parks, parking lots and other open spaces. Authorities warned against returning to homes with structural damage.
“We were afraid the buildings would collapse on us,” said María Cristina Díaz, a 41-year-old janitor. “My mother, my daughter and I were cold. We didn’t sleep a wink; but I didn’t want to spend the night alone at home after that terrible earthquake.”
“It was awful. We cried, we screamed. Thankfully, we’re alive,” she added.
Díaz and her family rushed to Plaza Candelaria in downtown Caracas because it’s one of the few open areas near her home.
Parts of the capital lost power and cellphone coverage, and the earthquakes damaged and closed Simón Bolívar International Airport, the country’s main airport, Rodríguez said.
In Caracas, subway services were suspended and natural gas shut off, she said. Classes will also be canceled for several days, and the Ministry of Education said some school buildings would be used as shelters and donation centers.
On Thursday morning, scores of people in Venezuela and abroad struggled to contact family members. Families began posting missing-person fliers with photos of loved ones, while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched for those still unaccounted for.
Also on Thursday, the U.N. human rights mission in Venezuela called on the government to lift local restrictions on social media.
“In the coming hours and days, timely access to reliable information and communication channels will be essential for the protection of the lives, safety, and well-being of the population,” the mission said in a statement.
In August 2024, then President Nicolás Maduro ordered X blocked in an attempt to suppress the exchange of information among those who rejected his claim of victory in the July presidential elections.
Rodríguez declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for hospitals and homes damaged by the earthquakes, and had instructed the economy and finance ministers to oversee the effort.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”
“We will have a whole government response,” Rubio said Thursday in Bahrain. “It will be big. It will be fast. It will be effective.”
He added that one of the runways at Caracas’ international airport was cracked in the earthquake, making landing aircraft there difficult.
Rodríguez — who became acting president after an American military operation captured her predecessor, Nicolás and brought him to the U.S. to stand trial — thanked U.S. President Donald Trump. She said in an X post later that she spoke with Rubio by phone without sharing details. She also expressed thanks to the leaders of various nations who have sent messages of support and offers of help.
Ecuador ordered the delivery of humanitarian aid, and Rodríguez said Qatar, Mexico and El Salvador had already sent rescue personnel.
“We send you all our solidarity and our prayers. Stay strong, Venezuela,” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, once diametrically opposed to Venezuela’s government, wrote in a post on X.
On June 8, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck approximately 65 miles off the coast of Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Tremors were felt throughout Southwest Florida, impacting residents from Naples to Cape Coral and Punta Gorda, as viewers contacted WINK News to provide there perspectives on the earthquake.
When comparing the impact of the Venezuelan earthquake to that of the early June Cuba earthquake, Weather Authority Meteorologist Katie Walls referred to the Richter scale. According to Walls, the scale is designed so that each number is 10 times more than the one before it.
So, compared to Cuba's 6.1M earthquake, last night's 7.5M was 25 times stronger. For reference, a 7.5M earthquake produces the same energy as 20 Megatons of TNT and would be 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, hence why the damage is extreme and catastrophic.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded in the world struck Chile in 1960. That was a 9.5M, 100 times stronger than the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela Wednesday night.
WINK News provided additional coverage of this story.
