LA GUAIRA/CARACAS - Desperate Venezuelans and rescue teams raced to find survivors on Friday as the death toll from twin earthquakes rose above 900 with foreign rescue teams and aid only beginning to reach devastated areas nearly two days after the quakes.

The government said 172 people remained trapped, 920 were dead and 3,360 injured while a website listed more than 50,000 people reported missing.

Frustration mounted over scarce equipment and uneven state support for the rescue effort after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes devastated parts of Caracas and surrounding areas on Wednesday evening.

A U.N. report estimated direct damage at about $6.7 billion, while reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter said the gap between economic and insured losses was likely to be "quite large."

Moron, a town near the epicenter, was still without electricity, the local fire chief told Reuters.

EYES ON LA GUAIRA

Reuters witnesses traveled along highways cracked by the quakes and passed dozens of buildings reduced to broken concrete and twisted metal. Some ruins were spray-painted with building names to help rescuers identify locations.

Traffic clogged roads into hard-hit La Guaira state as government and private vehicles, including pickups carrying soldiers, streamed in. The quakes destroyed at least 100 buildings there, including high-rise apartment blocks.

In a telephone call broadcast on state television, interim President Delcy Rodriguez said the government would restrict entry to La Guaira to reduce traffic and facilitate rescue and aid operations.

Residents dug through debris with their hands, complaining of a lack of heavy equipment, as volunteers ferried supplies on motorcycles from Caracas and Valencia.

Jennifer Palacios, 25, said the quakes struck just after she briefly left her home in the city's eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex, burying her 6-year-old son and five other relatives. Their fate remained unknown.

"It's the community that has managed to get people out alive," she said in front of the rubble. "We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped."

INTERIM GOVERNMENT TESTED

Reuters witnesses saw people in Catia la Mar, a town in La Guaira, removing toilet paper, cooking oil, bread and other items from a damaged store.

Police, the national guard and other officials did not intervene in the looting, according to Reuters witnesses. National Assembly head Jorge Rodriguez had earlier urged citizens not to bring aid directly to La Guaira and instead hand it to authorities to keep roads clear.

Rodriguez, who took power after the United States captured her predecessor in January, has pledged a major relief deployment and was shown on state television visiting La Guaira on Thursday.

The president thanked motorcycle caravans delivering supplies and said the government had distributed 2,600 tons of food.

Yet help remained uneven, with government emergency crews visible in some places but absent or barely present in others.

Lawyer Ricardo Trias, 73, was trying to obtain a death certificate for his godson Armando Lopez, 54, whose body was pulled from the rubble of his building in the town of Caraballeda on Thursday night and remained at the site.

"We want them to give us the body ... we can't take it and here it will rot," Trias said. "No forensic authority has come."

The disaster could carry political consequences for Rodriguez, who has tried to present herself as an agent of change even though she served as vice president to ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela's oil production was not affected by the quakes and remained at 1.2 million barrels per day, Oil Minister Paula Henao said in a radio interview on Friday, adding that fuel distribution would be guaranteed.

Oil executives and workers said the sector had avoided major infrastructure damage, though power outages and port delays were expected to curb output.

WORLD RALLIES

Foreign rescue teams - including some from countries long at odds with Venezuela - began arriving late on Thursday and into Friday. A small contingent from the Dominican Republic was the first to reach La Guaira.

Rodriguez said authorities met with representatives of the U.S. military's Northern Command and disaster experts. She thanked them for their support and said rescuers from Germany, the Netherlands and Italy were also on their way.

The U.S. said it was mobilizing $150 million in aid and easing sanctions while the U.S. military dispatched two ships and said helicopters and aircraft would support rescue efforts.

In Los Corales, 50 members of El Salvador's rescue team were assessing the ruins of three 10-story buildings using drones, heat scanners and dogs to locate survivors.

"People have told us they can hear people. They call them on the phone and they answer, and they can hear people screaming and calling," said Roberto Gavidia, the head of the team.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared a video on X of the team preparing to enter one building, saying they had discovered a 15-year-old trapped with her pet on the ninth floor and were working to free them.

NATION UNDER STRAIN

The quakes struck a nation already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil that has impoverished residents, driven millions abroad and weakened infrastructure.

"My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It's just me and my son, and I have no family in the country," said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible, which would make the disaster one of Latin America's deadliest earthquakes of the last century.

Nearly 7 million people could be affected, the U.N.'s migration agency said, as it supplied emergency shelter and other relief items.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera in La Guaira and Mayela Armas in Caracas; Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Moron, Reuters TV in La Guaira, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez in Barcelona, Fabiola Arambulo in Mexico City and Reuters bureaux around the world; Writing by David Latona, Andrew Cawthorne, Julia Symmes Cobb, and Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Jon Boyle, Deepa Babington and Cynthia Osterman)

Emergency services work at the site of a collapsed building following earthquakes that hit the country, in Caracas, Venezuela, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Fausto Torrealba Fausto Torrealba Reuters

A damaged car is seen as emergency services work at the site of a collapsed building following earthquakes that hit the country, in Caracas, Venezuela, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Fausto Torrealba Fausto Torrealba Reuters

People affected by earthquakes that hit the country line up to receive aid, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno Maxwell Briceno Reuters

A man with a Venezuelan flag-themed backpack walks amid rubble of collapsed buildings after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno Maxwell Briceno Reuters

A man reacts amid the rubble of a building after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa Gaby Oraa Reuters

Rescue personnel of Spain’s Emergency Military Unit, (UME), arrive to Venezuela to provide assistance in rescue efforts after earthquakes hit the country, in Venezuela, June 26, 2026, in this handout image. Spanish Emergency Military Unit (UME)/Handout via REUTERS Spanish Emergency Military Unit Reuters

People carry a mattress along a street after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno Maxwell Briceno Reuters

A man looks inside a bag as aid donations are collected and organised for people in Venezuela affected by recent earthquakes, in Bogota, Colombia, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Sergio Acero Sergio Acero Reuters

Rescuers to be deployed in support of those affected by the earthquakes in Venezuela, prepare to board an aircraft at Sao Paulo's Air Force Base, in Sao Paulo, Brazil June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Alexandre Meneghini Reuters

People inspect the rubble of a collapsed building after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa Gaby Oraa Reuters

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 6:37 PM.

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