Forensic personnel gather under tents during body identification operations at a makeshift morgue in the port of La Guaira, La Guaira State, Venezuela on June 29, 2026, days after twin earthquakes struck the country on June 24. (AFP)
The United States military repaired and reopened a key seaport in the hardest hit area of Venezuela on June 29, as the country began burying more than 1,700 victims of twin earthquakes that have left tens of thousands still missing.
Five days after powerful back-to-back quakes flattened entire neighborhoods, the task of recovering the dead loomed large and hopes of finding survivors faded.
By the latest official count, some 1,700 are dead and 5,000 are injured, with no governmental word on the number missing. Other estimates place these in the tens of thousands.
The Port of La Guaira re-opened, where an AFP correspondent observed a warehouse storing hundreds of unidentified bodies encased in white and black body bags as well as a few coffins. The USS Fort Lauderdale was docked and delivering aid.
Dozens of relatives from this devastated region waited outside the makeshift morgue for news of their families as forensic personnel in blue uniforms examined the corpses.
American airmen were also helping restore traffic at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas, which was also heavily damaged.
A total of 27 countries have mobilized nearly 40 search and rescue teams. They include more than 2,000 troops and personnel, along with more than 160 dogs, according to Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations coordinator in Venezuela.
She said the United Nations will provide 10,000 body bags, though it hopes the final toll will be lower.
The critical 72-hour window to find survivors, however, closed on June 27 at 6:04 p.m.
Still, miracles can happen.
A 21-year-old man identified as Aaron Levi was rescued on June 29 in the coastal town of Tanaguarena.
The U.N. says that some 7 million people in this country will be affected by the disaster, with the quakes knocking a $6.7 billion hole in the economy, or 6 percent of its GDP.
