Venezuela earthquake death toll rises to over 4,300

The death toll from the earthquakes in Venezuela on June 24 has reached 4,333, according to Mr. Rodríguez, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. This figure is an increase from the previous count of 4,118 deaths and 16,740 injured reported on Friday. The two earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, occurred 39 seconds apart and primarily impacted Caracas and the neighboring state of La Guaira. Over 19,000 displaced individuals are currently living in makeshift camps in these areas. Mr. Rodríguez, who is also the brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, did not provide an update on the number of missing persons, which the UN had estimated at around 50,000 shortly after the disaster. He noted that 315 bodies, representing 7% of the total victims, had not yet been identified as of Friday. Mr. Rodríguez denied claims that the government would halt search operations for bodies, assuring that the clearing of debris is proceeding slowly and that there is still hope of finding survivors in some locations. The government estimates that approximately 25,000 homes will need to be rebuilt. To address this, more than 40 plots of land, totaling about 584,000 square meters, have been made available in La Guaira for new housing construction. These plots are located in safe plains, away from the heavily affected coastal zone where hundreds of buildings were damaged and over 180 completely collapsed.