Earthquakes Rock Venezuela

Our full solidarity with the working people who have been victims of the disaster

June 26, 2026

Last Wednesday, June 24, 2026—the day marking yet another anniversary of the famous Battle of Carabobo, which sealed the country’s independence from the Spanish Crown—at approximately 6:04 p.m., two strong earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale shook the country, occurring just 39 seconds apart—a rare phenomenon known as a seismic doublet.

The epicenters of these earthquakes were located in the state of Yaracuy, in the central-western region, about 168 km from the capital; and they were felt across nearly the entire country, affecting the central region most severely—primarily the capital city of Caracas and La Guaira state—though serious damage also occurred in the states of Miranda, Aragua, Carabobo, Falcón, Zulia, Yaracuy, Lara, and others. The seismic event was also felt in other countries.

Our full solidarity goes out to the victims and the affected working people

Official figures so far report nearly six hundred deaths and nearly three thousand injured (589 dead and 2,980 injured), although it is estimated that the total number of victims—including the dead, injured, missing, and those affected—could exceed ten thousand. The large number of collapsed structures (buildings and homes), including residential, lodging, and commercial properties, and obviously the fact that a large number of people are trapped under the rubble, suggest that the number of victims will unfortunately approach or exceed the estimated figure.

On behalf of the Socialist Workers’ Unit (UST), we express our utmost solidarity with the victims and the Venezuelan working people affected by this natural disaster; we share in the profound grief that today overwhelms Venezuelan families due to the immense human and material losses, particularly the loss of homes.

To the workers and working-class communities who have suffered fatal losses—such as the death of family members and injuries—and to the more than 27,000 people affected, we send a warm embrace of solidarity and a message of encouragement and strength in the face of this tragic disaster.

Natural Disaster and Social Tragedy

It is a clear and undeniable fact that natural disasters are often inevitable and unpredictable, as is the case with earthquakes. However, the policies implemented by governments—in the areas of social welfare and disaster prevention—before, during, and after such events occur can either minimize or exacerbate their effects and consequences.

The recent earthquakes in Venezuela have struck the country amid a context of genuine social tragedy, which is now exacerbated by these events and, in a self-reinforcing cycle, further magnifies their harmful effects.

Years of disinvestment in social services (more than two decades), coupled with corruption (and also largely because of it), the theft of resources from oil exports, as well as the prioritization of these funds to guarantee the profits of transnational corporations in the sector and to service foreign debt, have plunged the country into a social catastrophe.

The country is in a precarious state, with public services in shambles and its entire infrastructure falling apart. Hospitals and health centers are in ruins and lack the medicines and supplies needed to treat and care for regular patients and common emergencies, let alone those resulting from a natural disaster. For their part, emergency prevention and public response services lack sufficient personnel and the necessary equipment to deal with this type of disaster, such as safety gear, tools, and heavy machinery for debris removal. Furthermore, it is worth noting the almost complete lack of prevention and education programs regarding natural disaster response.

Added to this is the lack of water (a city like Cumaná has been without water for over four months), the constant and increasingly prolonged power outages, the lack of and total precariousness of public transportation, and the shortage of gasoline, natural gas, and other essential services.

Added to this is the implementation of a brutal austerity package that forces millions of active workers, retirees, and pensioners to live on starvation-level wages and pensions.

So while the country suffers the consequences of reduced social spending, disinvestment in productive infrastructure and disaster prevention, the abusive sanctions imposed by the U.S., and the implementation of a package that shifts the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of workers; the government is moving forward with a pact with Trump and the FEDECÁMARAS business association to further hand over our natural resources, consolidate an almost colonial relationship with the world’s leading imperialist power, and, furthermore, to continue eroding wages and pensions, carry out layoffs in the public sector through a state restructuring plan overseen by Héctor Rodríguez, eliminate social benefits, and minimize or outright eliminate profit-sharing, year-end bonuses, and vacation pay through the reform of the Organic Labor Law—at the behest of and for the benefit of domestic and foreign private businesses.

It must be said that an earthquake as powerful as the one that has just struck the country makes no class distinctions when it comes to affecting the population and claiming victims; however, it is the working class, the residents of low-income neighborhoods, who suffer its terrible effects most acutely due to the precarious social conditions in which they live.

Resources to Address the Emergency and Assist the Victims. We denounce the hypocritical “aid” from the U.S. and Israel.

The UST demands that the government of Delcy Rodríguez make all state resources available to address the current emergency and assist the victims of this natural disaster, as well as the social tragedy afflicting the country. The government must make all state resources available for rescue efforts.

It is well known that the interim government, through the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), injects funds into the private banking sector to subsidize private businesses (more than $5,500 million in the last five months), which has not served to halt currency devaluation (the bolívar continues to depreciate rapidly against the dollar), but rather to enrich transnational corporations and large national businesses. We demand that this drain on resources be halted immediately and that all that money be allocated to emergency response efforts—both to rescue people currently trapped under the rubble and to provide comprehensive care for the victims.

Likewise, we denounce the U.S.’s “aid” as hypocritical. This country, which maintains harsh and severe sanctions against Venezuela and which, just six months ago, carried out a military invasion of our territory (including bombings), and which recently bombed our national territory again, now announces the approval of a “humanitarian aid” package for Venezuela in the wake of the devastating earthquakes.

This is an act of brazen audacity, given that it is well known that more than $6,685 million has ended up in U.S. coffers as a result of “U.S.-controlled sales” of Venezuelan oil—that is, money derived from the sale of our resources— the far-right Donald Trump decides how much to allocate to us to address an emergency of such disproportionate magnitude.

We demand that the U.S. government lift all sanctions still in place against the Venezuelan economy, especially those concerning finance and oil. We demand that all proceeds from the sale of our oil and mineral resources be released completely and permanently, and allocated to assisting the families of the victims, purchasing the machinery, tools, and equipment necessary for debris removal and the rescue of people trapped beneath it, rebuilding damaged public infrastructure (roads, hospitals, schools, public squares), and restoring the homes of those left homeless, among other essential measures at this time.

We also consider the “aid” from the Nazi-Zionist State of Israel to be utter hypocrisy, as it sends “humanitarian aid” while simultaneously carrying out a brutal genocide in the Gaza Strip and throughout Palestine, and recently led, in conjunction with the U.S., an invasion against the Iranian people.

We demand that the governments of the continent and the world provide material, real, unconditional, sufficient, and effective humanitarian aid.

On the other hand, large and medium-sized national and transnational corporations are today flaunting their humanity and issuing statements and messages of solidarity with the earthquake victims and their families, as well as messages joining in the national mourning. However, we believe it is essential that they provide financial support (and the government must also demand and guarantee this).

Private construction companies must make their heavy machinery and equipment available to the government for debris removal and the rescue of people still trapped beneath the rubble; private clinics must open their emergency rooms free of charge to treat those injured and affected by this natural disaster; large hotels must provide rooms to house those affected and left homeless, food producers must donate their products to feed those affected, and, among other measures, public and private banks must forgive the debts of disaster victims and their families. This is how effective humanitarian aid is realized.

We demand that international banks and creditors forgive the country’s external public debt, which has recently been estimated at $240 billion.

Finally, we call on workers’, popular, and student organizations, among others (unions—we call on all unions, union factions, community councils, student councils, and other grassroots organizations) to organize all solidarity efforts with the victims and affected families, setting up collection centers and ensuring, under their control, the proper distribution of aid to counteract corruption within the government bureaucracy.