CARACAS.-On Friday the 24th, one month of the earthquakes that shook the north of Venezuelathe number of deceased increased to 5,346 after 68 bodies were recovered under rubble in rescue operations, according to the official balance sheet this Tuesday that accounts for other victims but not of missings.
The injured remain at 1,740 people, while those left without homes reached 17,907 and there are 23,122 people in 107 temporary camps, said Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, who publishes daily reports after the work of Civil Protection and mostly volunteer rescuers.
Also, the number of families served was 128,324.
Other victims of the earthquakes
To the families that lost their homes, there are almost a hundred people, mainly from La Guaira and the capital Caracas devastated by the earthquakes, who are crying out for help, because they cannot return to their homes in heavily damaged buildings.
Local authorities place a yellow seal on these structures to warn of serious risks in the event of aftershocks that are still reported by the state-run Funvisis and specialized organizations, but the problem is exacerbated by the lack of resources to restore them.
Although some affected people, a good part of the elderly, have family members or friends to take them in temporarily, others, however, have no options.
According to the official report, the seismic events with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 left 856 buildings affected and 190 collapsed.
Identification of deceased
This Tuesday, the authorities called for an urgent voluntary collection of DNA samples to identify those killed in the double earthquake, mainly in La Guaira, reported the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences and the Ministry of the Interior in a statement cited by agencies.
Relatives who know or have indications that their dead loved ones are in morgues in La Guaira or Caracas were called to undergo tests to begin an identification process, in the event of a possible collapse of the service.
The objective is to “achieve the identification of the victims through scientific comparisons of genetic profiles and provide certainty and peace to the families,” explained the statement published online.
Unidentified victims are being buried in newly opened graves in a municipal cemetery in La Guaira state in early July, witnesses said.
Disappeared, an enigma
The authorities have not yet provided the number of missing people, but the citizen initiative ‘Disappeared Venezuela Earthquake’, a website where people whose whereabouts are unknown after the earthquakes are reported, registers 29,500 people who have not been able to be contacted.
However, the number could rise to 50,000, according to unconfirmed figures received by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs last June.
