'Everything collapsed': Venezuela region hit hardest by quakes cries for help
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
In the city of Catia La Mar on Venezuela’s coast, Yilsmaris Blanco stared in shock at the scenes of devastation early Thursday after powerful twin earthquakes levelled dozens of buildings. “It was terrible. Everything, everything collapsed,” the 39-year-old woman told AFP. “We thank God because… we’re alive, but there are people right now suffering with their relatives buried, with their relatives crushed and they can’t get them out.” A man walks past a fire outside a building following an earthquake in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, some 30kms north-west of Caracas, early on June 25, 2026. —AFP Two massive earthquakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck areas west of the capital Caracas on Wednesday evening, killing at least 164 people and injuring nearly 1,000, according to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez. Authorities have yet to provide a figure for those missing, as reports flooded in from across the country of people trapped under rubble. The northern region of La Guaira, facing the Caribbean, was hit hardest. The government’s initial toll does not include data from La Guaira — designated a “disaster area” — which is also home to the capital’s international airport. “We have nothing, right now we have nothing, not even the strength or the courage to go in there, just imagine,” said Larry Rojas, 49, standing in front of a collapsed building where his family was trapped. Rojas was among the thousands of affected residents in a Catia La Mar neigbourhood with nearly 200 housing towers. A man carries belongings out of a damaged building following an earthquake in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, some 30km north-west of Caracas, on June 25, 2026. —AFP Some of those buildings showed large cracks and fallen walls, while dozens of others were completely reduced to rubble, according to AFP reporters. There was no electricity in much of the area, and dozens of residents spent the night in the streets, fearful of aftershocks. “There are survivors down there,” said Lisbeth Vasqu