Venezuelans Frustrated With Government’s Earthquake Response

The critical 72-hour window for locating survivors has long since passed, with more than 100 hours now elapsed since the earthquakes struck on Wednesday.

A man identified as Wilber, who told the BBC on Sunday that he lost eight family members in the disaster, described the state as more of an obstacle than an ally.

“The government decided to close the streets,” he said, adding it was “making it harder to bring help.”

“Yesterday we waited from 6am to 4pm to get a special permission to come here. We wasted hours,” he said.

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Multiple reports have emerged of desperate residents digging through the debris with their bare hands in search of missing loved ones.

A Mexican firefighter and disaster assessment expert who spoke to the BBC over the weekend described the situation as “extremely challenging,” noting that the country’s rescue infrastructure was “decades behind international standards.”

There have also been reports of the healthcare system buckling under the pressure, with one physician noting that the state already struggled to deliver healthcare on a “normal day” before the disaster struck.

Opposition figures argue that years of government mismanagement of the economy and public services had severely weakened the country’s emergency response capacity.

The government, however, maintains that rescue personnel have been deployed and that it is actively coordinating relief efforts.