FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris, July 9, 2026. Two weeks after the double earthquake that struck the Venezuelan coast on June 24, the French press is scrutinizing both the relief efforts and the opacity of the official toll. According to Le Monde and France 24, the authorities in Caracas are now reporting 3,685 deaths, a figure that continues to rise without the government acknowledging any missing persons. However, the United Nations, cited by the two sources, provides a much wider range: up to 50,000 victims according to some estimates, while other projections suggest around 10,000. This discrepancy has led to a cautious interpretation in France: the official toll is at the very least incomplete.

On the ground, in La Guaira, the epicenter of the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes, bulldozers are still clearing mountains of debris, while several foreign rescue teams are withdrawing, having found no signs of life. France 24 interviews Estefany Suárez, 31, a mother of two, who is living in a tent in Caraballeda, a high-risk area, and denounces looting. The damaged Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía remains a symbol of paralysis: interim President Delcy Rodríguez announced on Telegram the activation of an alternative plan to reopen a parallel runway for commercial flights as soon as possible. Le Monde notes that US military planes are already landing regularly to provide humanitarian aid.

Beyond the emergency, Le Monde highlights a second, political front: six months after Nicolas Maduro's capture in a US military operation that killed over 100 people, the constitutional deadline to call new elections expired on July 3 without any initiative being taken, either by the US or the ruling party. A resident of La Mare, quoted anonymously, sums up the disillusionment: "the Americans have done nothing." For the French press, the natural disaster has thus revealed an institutional deadlock that reconstruction alone will not be enough to resolve.