Fallout from Venezuela’s earthquakes turns political as opposition leader seeks return
The fallout from Venezuela’s powerful twin quakes has evolved into a major test for acting President Delcy Rodriguez, sending her scrambling to prevent the humanitarian
The fallout from Venezuela’s powerful twin quakes has evolved into a major test for acting President Delcy Rodriguez, sending her scrambling to prevent the humanitarian disaster from becoming a political one as her mandate as interim leader expires Friday (July 3, 2026). A day after Ms. Rodriguez angrily defended the competence of her government’s relief effort at her first news conference since the June 24 disaster, her main rival, exiled Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, issued her own appeal. Speaking Friday (July 3, 2026) from Panama, Ms. Machado argued that the government’s quake response exposed its critical weaknesses and that her return to Venezuela “contributes to facilitating the transition process, especially after the tragedy”. “My presence stabilises the situation; it is part of the organising forces that the country needs at a time when the total absence of the state has become evident,” Ms. Machado said, referring to widespread criticism of the government’s earthquake response as slow and disorganized. “The country needs figures it can trust.” The quakes have killed more than 2,295 people and injured over 11,000 others, according to the government, which has not offered updates on the dead and injured since Wednesday. Machado’s opposition movement has set up a digital database to locate the missing that currently lists over 36,000 people unaccounted for. Her party has mobilised volunteers to collect donations in Venezuela and solicited aid from the country’s vast diaspora.
“My presence... seeks to bring people together, to unify, not only to address an emergency, but also to heal the wound,” said the opposition leader, who was barred from running in a 2024 presidential election in which President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory. An independently verified vote count carried out by the opposition found that the candidate that Ms. Machado endorsed, Edmundo Gonzalez, was the real winner. When the earthquakes hit, Ms. Machado saw a critical opportunity to return home for the first time since fleeing last December to accept a Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Ever since the United States captured Mr. Maduro in a brazen military operation in January, Ms. Machado has been seeking a comeback and calling for a democratic transition. But the Trump administration has thrown its support behind Rodriguez since Mr. Maduro’s ouster, praising her business-friendly reforms of the country’s lucrative oil sector and giving no timetable on when elections might be held. Two senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose private diplomatic discussions, told The Associated Press that the Trump administration has grown frustrated with Ms. Machado and dissuaded her from returning to Venezuela in the aftermath of the earthquakes. One official said that Ms. Machado had sought assistance from Washington for ferrying her to Venezuela from the Dutch Caribbean territory of Curacao and also from Panama, where she is now.
The BriefWire