Earthquake in Venezuela: Death toll rises to nearly 5,000 | Stories About Earthquakes

The UN estimates that 50,000 are missing, and many more are feared dead from the rubble as the focus shifts to rebuilding.

About 5,000 people are known to have died in the twin earthquakes that devastated Venezuela in June, but the United Nations estimates that as many as 50,000 people may be missing – with many feared buried in the rubble.

The death toll has now risen to 4,930, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez announced on Thursday.

The accident about a month ago affected thousands of people. About 17,000 people have been injured, and 21,120 are living in camps.

Venezuelan teams have been working since the earthquake, but local residents say their response has been slow.

“From the first time, since the earthquake happened, the people responded quickly, but from the common people. The common people are independent people. The response of the government is visible now,” Cinthia Pulido, a Venezuelan who fled because of the earthquakes, told Al Jazeera. “We are looking and waiting for an answer.”

The international rescue teams that were deployed after the disaster have withdrawn from their mission to provide aid.

“The least I can do is to survive, to support my children, and to support my mother,” Louismarez Paez, another refugee, told Al Jazeera.

His mother said, he does not receive any other help than what he is giving.

Venezuela has ‘essentials’ that it cannot afford

Venezuela has faced tough US sanctions since 2015, which experts say is making the government’s work even more difficult.

“Venezuela has untapped resources,” Mark Weisbrot, an economist and director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said.

This includes $11bn blocked by the US and European countries that Venezuela “must have”, said Weisbrot.

Earlier this week, a group of 14 Democratic lawmakers in the US sent a letter urging the White House to lift economic sanctions on Venezuela in order to help reform, according to a report in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The sanctions, they wrote, are “severely impeding immediate aid” and “have severely hampered the country’s efforts and reconstruction efforts”.

The UN estimates that the efforts in Venezuela could cost the country $37bn.