By Pablo Merguet on July 17, 2026
Delcy Rodriguez
While Caracas is conducting negotiations to recover its reserves and undertake a difficult and ambitious reconstruction plan, the death toll has risen to nearly 5,000, and unofficial reports indicate that nearly 50,000 people are missing.
The death toll continues to rise following the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela more than three weeks ago, on June 24. According to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, more than 4,800 deaths and 17,000 injuries have been reported so far, making this one of the worst natural disasters in the Caribbean nation’s history and the second most tragic in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 21st century. It is second only to the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where approximately 220,000 people died – a disaster from which the Caribbean nation has still not fully recovered to this day.
And this is precisely one of the major concerns of various officials and experts on natural disasters: how Venezuela will be able to emerge from this humanitarian and economic tragedy.
The United Nations communications office reported that the situation is extremely serious, especially given the imminent arrival of El Niño, which could put at risk the thousands of people affected and displaced by the twin earthquakes: “We cannot ignore the possibility that a strong El Niño could develop and hit Venezuela at a time when many people are already displaced,” said Lucas Guedes Hackradt, head of Disaster Risk Reduction at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Venezuela.
Venezuela finds itself in a rather complex economic situation. After over a decade of economic sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies, the Venezuelan economy has been severely battered by shortages of supplies in an oil-producing country that, since the second half of the 20th century, had relied on importing large quantities of goods to supply the domestic market.
In many ways, the sanctions succeeded in stifling an economy that also saw a portion of its international reserves frozen. Following the US attack on January 3, 2026, and the subsequent capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife (who are currently being held in a New York prison), the government of Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, has reestablished relations with the United States at virtually every level, including economic, military, and diplomatic matters.
In light of this reality, Rodríguez formally requested that the sanctions imposed on Venezuela be lifted and that the country be allowed to use Caracas’s international reserves to begin reconstruction and launch an economic recovery process that will last several years.
“We have never ceased to call for the lifting of the economic blockade against Venezuela, because it affects the entire population, and we are at a moment when it would be an extraordinary signal from the international community if those who have the power to lift that blockade on Venezuela were to do so,” Rodríguez stated on July 13 during the Economics Congress.
The reality is that the situation is more serious than people realize. Despite the terrifying death toll in the thousands, some media outlets report more than 50,000 missing persons, which further clouds prospects for a swift economic recovery – especially considering that more than 21,000 people have lost their homes and are currently living in 106 temporary camps.
According to the government, the construction of nearly 25,000 homes is needed, which entails a massive expense that, for now, Venezuela would find very difficult to cover. For now, Jorge Rodríguez announced that this week they will deliver the first 200 homes, built through an enormous effort in the face of a tragic humanitarian situation and an economy tacitly controlled from abroad.
Source: BreakThrough News