Venezuela earthquake death toll passes 4,000, official figures show thousands injured and missing, UN appeal and frozen-asset dispute frame the recovery

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Rescuers work atop the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela last month. Photograph: Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters theguardian.com

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At least 4,118 people have been killed in Venezuela’s twin earthquakes, according to official figures cited by The Guardian and BNO News, with 16,740 reported injured and thousands listed as missing. The quakes struck on 24 June and were followed by a continuing sequence of aftershocks, including a smaller tremor that prompted evacuations in Caracas this week. Rescue teams have halted searches for survivors, while relatives continue digging through ruins to recover bodies for burial.

The numbers point to a disaster that is no longer an emergency-response problem but a long recovery campaign, in a country where state capacity has been worn down by a prolonged economic crisis. The Guardian reports mobile kitchens, clinics and field hospitals set up in public spaces in the hardest-hit areas, a visible workaround when normal infrastructure cannot absorb the shock. BNO News, summarising government updates, says thousands have been rescued and tens of thousands of patients treated, alongside a rising count of recorded aftershocks.

International aid is present but arrives into a politically constrained environment. The Guardian notes that non-governmental organisations were until recently targets of government repression, a recent history that shapes how quickly outside groups can scale up and how freely they can operate. The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for nearly $300 million to assist 1.3 million people in need, while the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around $37 billion.

The government is also trying to widen the pool of available funds without conceding control. Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez has called for the release of frozen assets held abroad, including gold in the United Kingdom, arguing it should be used for reconstruction, The Guardian reports. That request lands in a sanctions landscape designed to deny the state discretionary resources, even as the humanitarian bill is now being priced in hospitals, temporary shelters and shattered apartment blocks.

The official death toll rose again on Friday. The same update kept the injured count unchanged at 16,740.