Venezuela Venezuela earthquakes: 589 confirmed dead so far as international rescue teams arrive – latest updates ‘We hope to rescue as many living people as possible’, says the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, but authorities fear the death toll will be in the thousands LIVE Updated 7m ago Aneesa Ahmed and Sundus Abdi (now),Taz Ali (earlier) Fri 26 Jun 2026 14.28 BSTFirst published on Fri 26 Jun 2026 09.11 BST Share Key events 1h ago Number of people killed in Venezuela earthquakes rises to 589 2h ago Xi offers disaster relief and reconstruction aid to Venezuela 3h ago What have countries pledged in foreign aid?
4h ago International rescue teams arrive in Venezuela 5h ago Opening summary Volunteers search for survivors in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela.
Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Volunteers search for survivors in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela.
Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images From 1h ago Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the number of people killed in the double earthquake has risen to 589, with 2,980 injured.
“We are going to rescue the people who are trapped,” she said.
“We are working tirelessly on this task.” There has been an unexplained disparity in the number of people injured, with the Venezuelan health minister Carlos Alvarado telling state broadcaster VTV yesterday that more than 4,300 people had been wounded.
Key events 1h ago Number of people killed in Venezuela earthquakes rises to 589 2h ago Xi offers disaster relief and reconstruction aid to Venezuela 3h ago What have countries pledged in foreign aid?
4h ago International rescue teams arrive in Venezuela 5h ago Opening summary The US treasury department has temporarily removed sanctions on Venezuela.
This will let the Venezuelan government make temporary transactions for earthquake relief – which would not be possible otherwise due to economic sanctions in place.
The New York Times reports that this exemption is in place until 23 October.
This comes as The US state department said it is mobilising $150m in aid.
That included $50m for partners such as the UN’s World Food Programme and nonprofit organisation International Medical Corps, and $100m to a UN pooled fund.
Rodríguez said that the government has decided to militarise the state of La Guaira after the earthquakes, Reuters reports.
La Guaira, the coastal region north of Caracas, was the worst affected by Wednesday’s twin earthquakes and has been declared a “disaster zone”, with at least 100 buildings collapsed including high rise apartment blocks, according to the UN.
A person walks past the debris of buildings that collapsed in the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela.
Photograph: Jesús Vargas/Getty Images Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the number of people killed in the double earthquake has risen to 589, with 2,980 injured.
The UN said international search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are travelling to Venezuela to help look for survivors, AFP reports.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency Ocha, said getting the teams to the scene was a “top priority”.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he said: “Earthquakes are one of the most devastating things that can happen to any country.
It really is a terrifying thing.
But what we are seeing right now is also an international mobilisation at its very best.
The entire humanitarian system is moving very fast, and at scale.” Teams from Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and the US were already in Venezuela, said Laerke, adding that they will be followed by personnel from the UK, Czechia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar and Spain, among others.
China’s president Xi Jinping said Beijing was ready to provide Venezuela with “disaster relief and reconstruction” assistance.
Xi sent a message of condolence to Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez today, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has pledged support for Venezuela.
Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters “Upon learning that the powerful earthquakes have caused heavy casualties and significant property losses, Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, mourned those killed in the earthquakes and expressed sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and those injured,” Xinua reported.
Two Chinese nationals were confirmed among the victims of the earthquakes, according to Xinhua, citing the embassy in Caracas.
The Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, has raised the death toll of Spaniards to three and the number of missing to 99.
Four Spanish citizens have been located trapped under the rubble of buildings collapsed by the double earthquake in Venezuela, and rescue teams are now working to reach them, Albares said, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
He also said a group of Spanish tourists stranded in the country will return on the military plane that has transported aid to Venezuela.
Rescuers, equipment and other emergency aid are arriving in Venezuela to help with relief efforts.
Below are details of the foreign aid put together by Reuters: US The US state department said it is mobilising $150m in aid.
Washington is also sending a disaster response team with two urban search-and-rescue units, while providing airlift, logistics and coordination support to move personnel and life-saving supplies into affected areas, the state department said.
El Salvador More than 150 rescue workers and supplies arrived in Venezuela from El Salvador this morning, along with medical supplies.
Rescue workers walk to the airplane at the Comalapa airbase in La Paz, El Salvador, for the humanitarian aid flight to Venezuela.
Photograph: APHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images Mexico Mexico is initially sending 250 military rescue personnel, five rescue dogs, four aircraft, a drone, rescue equipment and medical supplies.
Red Cross The first batch of humanitarian supplies is leaving the International Federation of the Red Cross’s (IFRC) regional humanitarian hub in Panama today.
“The cargo includes kitchen sets, hygiene kits, mosquito nets, and other essential items,” said Loyce Pace, the Americas regional director for the IFRC.
India Two Indian air force planes took off for Venezuela carrying a field hospital and emergency supplies, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said.
Germany A German federal disaster relief team with 48 members is deploying to Venezuela today to assist with rescue and recovery operations.
Pope Leo Pope Leo has sent €100,000 to Venezuela for quake relief from the Vatican’s charity fund, Vatican media reported.
World Central Kitchen Chef Jose Andres, founder of the humanitarian meal provider World Central Kitchen, said his team had begun distributing meals in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
He also said his Longer Tables Fund will immediately contribute $1m to help Venezuela.
Colombia Colombia’s national unit for disaster risk management said it had mobilised a search-and-rescue team of more than 60 people, four dog teams and equipment for Venezuela.
Nine firefighters from the city of Cali were going to assist with search-and-rescue efforts, the mayor said.
Members of the Colombian search and rescue team in Bogotá load a van with equipment to send aid to Venezuela.
Photograph: Andres Rot/Getty Images Ecuador Ecuador sent a rescue team consisting of 46 specialists, two search dogs and equipment.
Volunteers sort food, medicine and relief supplies at a collection centre in Quito, Ecuador, to be shipped to communities affected by the recent earthquakes in Venezuela.
Photograph: Karen Toro/Reuters Panama Panama said it will send a rescue mission to Venezuela and is organising humanitarian aid.
France France said it is deploying a search-and-rescue unit to Venezuela including medical teams, engineers and dogs to help locate and extract survivors from collapsed buildings.
Spain The Spanish defense ministry said a military plane would bring 57 soldiers from its search-and-rescue unit and 40 firefighters from the Madrid region to Venezuela.
Spain’s development agency also plans to set up a field hospital in Venezuela.
Italy Italy’s civil protection agency said it was sending an advance team to Venezuela while the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said firefighters, the defence ministry and the air force were mobilising to offer help.
UK UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said the government is providing £2m to help the emergency response.
Spain’s foreign ministry said two Spanish nationals were killed in the earthquake, while an official confirmed 90 others were missing.
“We deeply regret the death of two Spaniards, confirmed by their relatives, to whom we extend our condolences,” the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Speaking to the Spanish radio network, Cadena SER, Spain’s territorial policy minister, Ángel Víctor Torres, said the number of Spaniards missing in the double earthquake in Venezuela had risen to 90.
Portugal’s foreign ministry also confirmed nine Portuguese national were killed, with 56 citizens missing or unaccounted for.
A group of 80 rescuers from Switzerland landed in Venezuela this morning, according to the country’s state broadcaster, VTV.
The Swiss delegation includes search and rescue specialists along with 18 tonnes of supplies and eight search dogs.
Turkey announced two flights will leave Istanbul today with military, medical and rescue personnel and a pair of search dogs, while the Netherlands also said it was sending a team consisting of 65 rescue workers, dogs and equipment.
A Dutch rescue team departing from Eindhoven airbase for Venezuela.
Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Here are some images on the newswires from Venezuela, where rescue teams and residents have worked through the night to search for survivors: A volunteer carries a rescued dog across the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state.
Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images People search for possible victims in Caraballeda, 40km north-east of the capital, Caracas.
Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Two people ride a motorbike past a heavily damaged apartment building in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state.
Photograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images A man walks in a cracked street in Los Corales, La Guaira state.
Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Rescue workers and volunteers search through the rubble of a collapsed building in Caracas.
Photograph: Maryorin Mendez/AFP/Getty Images A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck a rural part of northern California on Wednesday.
Hours later, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the northern coast of Japan and two powerful earthquakes rocked Venezuela in a devastating mass casualty event.
The tremors happened in the span of eight hours, prompting online speculation over whether they were related.
Experts say they were not.
The episodes do share a similarity in that they all occurred along well-known plate boundaries with high seismic hazard, according to William Barnhart, assistant coordinator for the US Geological Survey’s earthquake hazards program.
But their timing on Wednesday was simply a coincidence.
“Earthquakes happen every day all over the world.
Most of them happen far from people,” Barnhart said.
