Venezuela earthquake death toll nearly doubles as interim president Delcy Rodríguez urges intensified rescue efforts

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said on June 26 that officials are working to “save as many people as possible” after the government’s official death toll from the country’s worst earthquake in more than a century nearly doubled. Rodríguez’s remarks came as rescuers continued searches amid mounting criticism from families and observers who said the official response had been slow and constrained by limited resources.

Rodríguez, acting as interim president, told reporters that foreign rescue teams were arriving to support local efforts. She presented the government’s immediate priority as expanding search-and-rescue capacity and reaching people still trapped or injured in affected areas, while acknowledging the scale of the disaster and the pressure it placed on emergency services.

The death toll reported by Venezuelan authorities rose quickly over the period covered by the June 26 reporting, with the figure described as having “almost doubled” as officials updated casualties. The rapid increase underscored the challenges faced by teams operating in damaged infrastructure, including road access issues and the difficulty of confirming casualties as work continued.

The Guardian reported that anger and frustration were growing among some affected families and observers, who criticized what they described as sluggish official action. The criticism centered not only on timing but also on the practical limits of the response, including whether sufficient equipment, manpower, and coordination were in place as the search moved from the immediate aftermath into longer recovery and identification operations.

Rodríguez framed the next steps around urgency and prioritizing lifesaving actions rather than focusing on restoration timelines. By emphasizing the arrival of international assistance, she also indicated that the government expected additional outside capacity to play a role in ongoing operations.

While the interim president’s statements highlighted cooperation and reinforcement, the widening gap between officials’ updates and public expectations raised questions about how quickly assistance could be mobilized and deployed on the ground. With the official death toll continuing to rise, further updates were expected as authorities expanded identification, accounting, and continued searches for survivors.

For local communities, the immediate impact remained twofold: continued danger for those in unstable structures and the growing personal toll as authorities updated casualty numbers. Rodríguez’s vow to intensify rescue efforts placed pressure on emergency management institutions to translate public commitments into sustained operational support, including coordination with incoming teams.