On Thursday, Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, strongly defended her government’s response to the twin earthquakes that have devastated parts of the oil-rich country.
“We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately,” Rodríguez told foreign journalists a week after the earthquakes struck.
“Naturally, at the sites where the building collapsed, the first people to arrive were survivors of the collapse itself, relatives and neighbors,” she said.
Rodriguez’s administration has been criticized for being slow and disorganized in its response to the disaster.
The NGO International Rescue Committee, for instance, said earlier this week the scale of the response was not meeting humanitarian needs.
But the interim leader called the criticism “narratives manufactured in propaganda laboratories.”
“To politicize a humanitarian tragedy like this,” she said, “is disgraceful.”
Death toll up, thousands still missing
Rodriguez also said that the death toll from the disaster had risen to 2,595, with more than 12,400 wounded.
She did not detail the number of people who are still missing, but thousands still remain unaccounted for.
Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing but hope has faded for finding many more survivors.
Relatives, rescue workers and volunteers have turned to focusing on retrieving the dead.
Meanwhile, thousands continue to sleep in crowded shelters or outside.
Doctors have warned that the situation could lead to an outbreak of infectious diseases, further exacerbating the already severe medical crisis.
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Aid arriving to Venezuela from IMF and World Bank
Rodriguez also said Thursday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank had agreed to provide financial assistance for recovery efforts.
Caracas is creating a $200 million (roughly €175 million) reconstruction fund with the IMF, and money will go to contractors to reconstruct lost homes, she added.
Rodríguez also expressed appreciation for US President Donald Trump and Secretary State of Marco Rubio for their help, saying they “remained constantly attentive and offered support.”
The US has committed over $300 million and deployed some 900 military personnel to support rescue and relief efforts.
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Edited by: Rana Taha
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