Venezuela earthquakes: Window to find more survivors closing
06/28/2026 June 28, 2026 German ambassador to Venezuela: Chances to find quake victims are 'diminishing' DW spoke to Volker Pellet, Germany's ambassador to Venezuela, regarding
06/28/2026 June 28, 2026 German ambassador to Venezuela: Chances to find quake victims are 'diminishing' DW spoke to Volker Pellet, Germany's ambassador to Venezuela, regarding the earthquakes there, the political situation and the disaster response. He spoke to DW from Caracas. "There are two realities. There's one reality in Caracas, a huge city, more than 5 million people who have been affected," Pellet said. "But the real catastrophe happened on the coast, which is about one hour away from here, La Guaira, you've probably heard these names, which is a disaster apocalyptic scenario.
"This is really a completely different reality there," Pellet said. "It is also different on the coast itself, approaching this horrible sight for kilometers, you see very little destruction. And then all of a sudden, from one moment to the other, there's total destruction. We have to ask seismic experts why that happened. But this is really shocking to see. I've been there last night." Pellet was asked how the government under interim President Delcy Rodriguez has handled the situation. He said it's important to take into account that the Venezuelan government has already struggled to provide public services over the past few decades.
"It's a chaotic situation. I think in many countries it would be problematic," Pellet said. "But if you take into account the public services that have not been perfect for the last 20 years, you can imagine how the situation is." Venezuela: Finding earthquake survivors against the odds To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Pellet also spoke about the international aid response. He said 25 nations are taking part in relief efforts. "We have like 3,000 aid workers here.
The focus is on search and rescue, as always, in such a disaster. I've been to Haiti, so I've had some experience on this trying to save lives. But unfortunately now after 3 or 4 days into this catastrophe, the chances to find victims are diminishing every second. But they are doing a great job. They're doing whatever they can. They work without resting in order to help and save human lives."
The BriefWire