Venezuela's Earthquake Toll Reaches 235 as Rescuers Search Collapsed Buildings

Rescue teams worked overnight across northern Venezuela after two earthquakes, measured at magnitude 7.5 and 7.2, struck within a day of each other. The confirmed death toll rose to 920, with 3,360 injured, according to Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, with at least 172 people still believed to be trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Tens of thousands more were missing or displaced, according to Venezuelan officials and aid agencies. The United States and Mexico were among the first countries to send assistance, and Pope Leo sent an initial emergency donation of 100,000 euros, with acting President Delcy Rodríguez saying authorities feared the final count would be far higher.

Al Jazeera reported that inadequate infrastructure in Caracas, the product of years of underfunding, intensified the destruction. The second tremor was described as Venezuela's most powerful in more than a century. The US Geological Survey estimated a 44 percent chance that the death toll could eventually exceed 10,000.

Beyond the immediate humanitarian emergency, the disaster affects a country that holds some of the world's largest oil reserves and whose exports have been gradually returning to global markets as sanctions ease. The economic damage and the strain on an already weakened state add further uncertainty to that recovery.