The death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on 24 June has climbed to at least 3,685 — with some official figures now suggesting it may have reached 3,811 — making the disaster the deadliest seismic event recorded in the country in more than a century. The consecutive quakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, have also left at least 16,740 people injured and nearly 18,000 without homes. The hardest-hit area is La Guaira, a coastal state just north of Caracas, where more than 800 buildings were damaged and at least 190 collapsed entirely. Twelve days after the quakes, international rescue teams have largely ended active survivor searches, and the focus has shifted to debris removal and recovery. Authorities estimate the volume of rubble in La Guaira alone at more than one million tonnes.

The scale of the missing remains deeply uncertain. The Venezuelan government acknowledges the figure runs into the thousands but has not provided a specific number, while a citizen-run platform has registered around 31,000 people out of contact and the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 may still be unaccounted for. Independent verification has been hampered by access restrictions in the worst-affected areas. The UN purchased 10,000 body bags in late June, signalling expectations that the death toll will continue to rise.

With recovery costs mounting, Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto have made urgent appeals for the release of Venezuelan state assets frozen abroad, including gold held by the United Kingdom and funds blocked in the United States. "There are accounts belonging to the Venezuelan state in various parts of the world that have been frozen as a result of illegal sanctions," Gil told a meeting of UN officials and partners on Wednesday. Separately, a group of 113 economists and academics wrote to Washington urging the full lifting of economic sanctions — particularly those targeting the Central Bank and the state oil company PDVSA — arguing the restrictions prevent resources from reaching those who need them most. The US, which had imposed sweeping sanctions from 2019 onward against the government of former president Nicolás Maduro, has already temporarily lifted some measures for four months to facilitate relief operations.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher arrived in Venezuela for a four-day visit and took part in a ministerial-level briefing on the disaster response. The UN launched an appeal on Wednesday for $296 million to reach 1.3 million people over six months, noting a total funding gap of $627 million once longer-term needs are accounted for. Some $300 million in support has already been tracked, including $115 million pledged before the earthquake struck. The World Food Programme has separately requested $50 million to assist around 500,000 people over the next three months.

The disaster has deepened a humanitarian crisis that already affected nearly 8 million Venezuelans before the quakes struck, according to UN estimates. International assistance has come from 27 countries, which have sent specialist teams and search dogs. Haiti dispatched a medical mission of 31 professionals, while France, Portugal and China continued sending aid. Rodríguez also requested seismic expertise from Japan, Peru and Chile. The response by Venezuela's interim authorities has drawn some domestic criticism for being too slow, though the US chargé d'affaires in Caracas, John Barrett, said the government was "cooperating fully" with humanitarian efforts.