The death toll from Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes last month has topped 4,300, a top lawmaker said Saturday.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez – brother of interim leader Delcy Rodriguez – put the toll at 4,333, up from 4,118 on Friday.
On June 24, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira, flattening entire high-rise apartment blocks to layers of rubble.
Camps for families left homeless have sprung up in stadiums, squares and sidewalks. More than 19,000 people currently live in these camps, Rodriguez said.
Venezuelan and foreign volunteers provide medical care in tents set up in open areas and distribute food.
Rodriguez did not say how many people are still unaccounted for, but the United Nations has estimated that 50,000 people are still missing.
He dismissed the idea that the government would suspend the search for bodies because of families’ fears that the rubble would be cleared indiscriminately.
The government’s original estimate suggests that around 25,000 homes will be needed to house people.
Rodriguez said the government will begin providing some apartments to families in the coming days that were under construction before the earthquake.
But he added that significant resources will be needed to build more, provide rental assistance and offer loans for property purchases.
The government has allocated more than 40 plots of land in La Guaira, totaling about 584,000 square meters, for the construction of new housing, Rodriguez said.
He explained that the land is in safe plains away from the coastal area where hundreds of buildings were damaged and more than 180 collapsed completely.
Also this week, interim President Delcy Rodriguez asked Britain’s King Charles III to release Venezuela’s gold reserves, currently held at the Bank of England.
