ARGENTINA PERSPECTIVE

Buenos Aires, July 9, 2026. Thirteen days after the double earthquake that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, the official toll released by the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, stands at 3,685 dead and 16,740 injured, according to figures reported by MercoPress. The number of homeless people has risen to 17,907, distributed across 82 temporary camps, while 6,462 people have been rescued. A discrepancy persists regarding the number of missing people: the government mentions "thousands" without providing a specific figure, the citizen platform Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela estimates around 31,000, and the UN estimates up to 50,000 people are unaccounted for.

For the Argentine press, the drama is first and foremost seen through the lens of its own citizens. Clarín has been following the search for Lucas Gámez, a 9-year-old Argentine boy trapped under the rubble in La Guaira, the area most affected by the two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5. La Nación documents the desperation of families who are renting, for up to $1,200 per day, heavy machinery to search the ruins themselves: former baseball player Eliezer Alfonzo has mobilized around 50 people and equipment from Puerto La Cruz to find his wife and daughter.

The gradual withdrawal of international rescue teams, replaced by Venezuelan volunteers and local civil protection, coincides with growing anger documented by Clarín: residents of La Guaira accuse police and national guards of being passive while civilians and rescuers searched the rubble. Opposition leader María Corina Machado demands an electoral calendar and denounces the use of the earthquake as an "excuse" to delay any political solution.

In Buenos Aires, the Venezuelan community has been organizing concerts and collections in several neighborhoods since July 1 to fund aid, while the Red Cross has opened a dedicated line for Venezuelans in the diaspora seeking to contact unreachable relatives.