THE United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for nearly $300 million (£230 million) to fund relief operations in Venezuela, as the death toll from the catastrophic twin earthquakes that struck on 24 June rose to 3,811, with nearly 17,000 injured and thousands still missing.
Speaking at a UN meeting on Wednesday, humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher confirmed that donors were already stepping forward. “Donors are already stepping up, and I pay tribute to them, and I thank them,” he said, adding that the appeal sought $296 million to provide urgently needed aid for 1.3 million people over the next six months.
The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes – among the worst in Latin American history – have left nearly 18,000 people homeless, particularly in the coastal state of La Guaira, where entire residential blocks were flattened. Rescue teams from abroad have largely ended searches for survivors, but families continue to dig through rubble for the bodies of loved ones. In the Caraballeda district, excavators worked alongside soldiers to clear debris from the OPP housing complex, where several towers collapsed completely. The air was thick with the stench of decomposition as grieving relatives kept vigil.
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Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, used the UN forum to call on the international community to release frozen state assets. “We call upon all countries currently holding blocked funds belonging to Venezuela to initiate a plan to release these funds so that they can be used for recovery efforts,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil told the meeting. Ms Rodríguez also revealed that she had written to King Charles III requesting the release of approximately 30 tonnes of Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England under UK sanctions. “I decided to send a letter to the King of England to have the gold held at the Bank of England released. This gold belongs to our people. We need this gold to deal with the consequences of the earthquake,” she said on state television.
The United States, which toppled the previous Maduro government in January and has since backed Ms Rodríguez’s administration, has already lifted a number of economic sanctions for four months to facilitate relief. Washington had imposed sweeping sanctions from 2019 onward, but ties have improved, and the Trump administration has gradually eased restrictions, particularly to develop Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Even before the disaster, Venezuela struggled with decades of economic turmoil that left infrastructure and health services depleted. The UN estimates the quakes caused $6.7 billion in damage – equivalent to six per cent of the country’s GDP. Caracas’s main international airport remains closed to commercial flights.
On the ground, survivors are enduring acute shortages. In Caraballeda, three families sat at a street corner waiting for donations, having managed to find only nappies, water, toilet paper and a little food. Stefani Garate, 26, a former beach vendor of coconut sweets, said: “I don’t know how long we will be like this. At least today they gave us some rice, spaghetti and sardines.” Gynaecologist Genesis Ramírez, 34, was searching for her nieces in the wreckage of a collapsed building. “How can I not have hope when a baby was pulled alive from this same building? How can I lose faith?” she said. “Until you see the body, you don’t lose hope.”
A soldier at the site told reporters: “Now all that’s left is body recovery.” The government updated the death toll on Wednesday and said nearly 17,000 people were injured, with thousands more still unaccounted for.
The UN appeal, if fully funded, aims to reach 1.3 million people with shelter, food, water, medical care and sanitation over the next six months. Meanwhile, Caracas continues to press for the release of frozen foreign reserves to help finance its long road to recovery.
