Rodriguez faces growing political crisis

Government's disaster response draws criticism

A rescue worker rests with his head bowed into his hands in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday (local time), after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck the country and other parts of the Caribbean. [Getty Images]
A rescue worker rests with his head bowed into his hands in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday (local time), after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck the country and other parts of the Caribbean. [Getty Images]

A powerful earthquake that struck Venezuela has put interim President Delcy Rodriguez — who took power after the collapse of Nicolas Maduro's government — in a deepening political crisis, analysts say.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Rodriguez administration, which governs with US support, risks a political crisis if it fails to demonstrate an effective disaster response.

Residents have voiced widespread frustration over what they describe as an inadequate government response. Years of economic collapse and corruption have severely weakened the military, civil defense organizations and emergency rescue systems.

In hard-hit areas including La Guaira and Catia La Mar, residents dug through rubble with their bare hands to pull out survivors before rescue teams arrived.

Locals used motorcycles and private cars to transport the injured to hospitals. In several cases, families trapped under concrete debris waited for rescue equipment that never came, as a shortage of heavy machinery made it impossible to free them.

At one hospital in La Guaira, the worst-affected area, the water supply was cut off, forcing medical staff to wash their hands and clean blood-stained floors using saline solution and stored water.

President Rodriguez announced that troops would be deployed to the affected areas. Military personnel on the ground, however, focused on traffic control and maintaining public order rather than search-and-rescue operations.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado criticized the government, saying its emergency response capacity was "in effect paralyzed" and that "many areas have yet to receive any help."


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