Venezuela Earthquake + 48hrs

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio looks at the current situation in Venezuela, 48hrs after the earthquakes struck. 

Transcript

Hi everyone. Well, the story of the moment of course continues to be the continuing aftermath of the earthquake in Venezuela. The death toll at time of recording is listed as 920 dead, and with a staggering in excess of 51,000 still missing. Many scenes emerging are genuinely apocalyptic, entire buildings, and groups of buildings, collapsed in on themselves. 

Authorities announced tonight, 48 hours after the quakes, that they would block access to La Guaira, the most devastated location, as chaos and traffic began to impede search efforts. Anyone wanting to enter now requires an official permit, and it all revolves around the fact that people feel that the response to the devastation, at least as regards the Venezuelan government is concerned, is slow and limited, and are trying to engage in search and rescue efforts of their own accord. 

Of course, personal stories abound, of both rescues and tragic instances of loss, and these will continue on into the coming days, although as time passes the stories of incredible survival will be fewer and farther between. Many families continue to sleep on the streets or in parks, in makeshift shelters, unable to return to damaged buildings. How and when these buildings will be assessed is yet another difficult question in this time of crisis, and another challenge which the Venezuelan government is unable to rise to meet. 

It is of course a seminal event for the country, and personally tragic for tens of thousands, in a way that is indivisible from what has gone before, having lived through at least a generation of economic struggle. Statistically, more than half of the population lives in extreme poverty and a third of the country’s population were already in need of humanitarian assistance ahead of the earthquakes.  

In recent interviews on Times Radio and LBC, I mentioned that one of the reasons for the devastation relates to this, the fact that materials for construction were of poor quality due to the economic crisis, and that many buildings - in fact more than half of Caracas - was built under an entirely outdated construction code, before new laws governing seismic-resistant constructions were brought in in 1982. 

For interim president Delcy Rodriguez, this is also her first real political challenge in which she is standing alone, unable to blame her predecessor Nicolas Maduro, even if by omission. Anger among the population is likely to rise, as the shock subsides, and society looks for accountability. Wherever you look, there is a lot at stake: life; death; and beyond.