Sen. Marco Rubio provided an update on American aid after two massive earthquakes struck near Caracas, detailing search and rescue deployments, infrastructure challenges, and early coordination with regional partners.
Two major earthquakes hit Venezuela with epicenters just west of Caracas, registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. Officials warn the death toll could reach at least 100,000, and residents report widespread collapse across many neighborhoods. These are the strongest tremors in the area in more than a century, leaving large swaths of northern Venezuela in ruins.
Whole blocks are down and critical services are crippled, forcing thousands to sleep outside because people fear returning to damaged buildings. Streets and coastal areas are littered with rubble, and first responders face the twin challenges of fragile structures and limited access. Local authorities have declared a state of emergency as rescue teams race to reach survivors.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed reporters on U.S. action and the immediate priorities for American assistance.
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“We are already deploying search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. There’ll be some other as well,” Rubio said. “That’s their most immediate need right now, is search and rescue efforts. They have a bunch of collapsed buildings, so they’ll need a lot of help in terms of digging through that.”
“The airport there is badly damaged, so we’ll have to rely on the Department of War to deploy assets there. And then we’re also helping them with some overhead imagery, especially in coastal areas where they don’t have full visibility over what the damage has been,” Rubio continued. “Those are the acute, short-term needs over the next 48 to 72 hours because in search and rescue you’re trying to get to people while you can still save their lives. They’re buried under rubble.”
“And other countries are responding as well. The Qataris have already offered assistance. We spoke to them earlier today as well. El Salvador has stepped up, and multiple countries around the region including Chile and others have reached out to us to communicate and get that happening,” Rubio said.
“As we move forward with that response, with sort of the short-term phase of response and recovery, the second phase will be identifying the more longer-term and acute needs, what are the things over the long-term that they’re going to need,” Rubio added. “We’ll have a better assessment of that in the next 48 hours when we’re on the ground.”
Reports from the ground describe families clustered in open spaces, unwilling to sleep inside damaged homes, and hospitals overwhelmed with the injured. Rescue crews are prioritizing buildings where survivors may still be trapped, but the scale of destruction complicates every operation.
Rubio emphasized that American teams are focused on the narrow, lifesaving window for search and rescue while also beginning to map damage from above. The U.S. is supplying imagery and coordinating assets to fill gaps left by damaged infrastructure, and officials say they will assess longer-term recovery needs once crews can safely operate on the ground.
There’s a clear sense that this will be a multi-stage effort: immediate rescue, damage assessment, then reconstruction planning, and that will require broad international support. It would have been different, for sure. Also a fair point. A state of emergency has been declared in Venezuela, and officials expect casualty figures and needs assessments to evolve over the next 48 hours.
