PIEDMONT, Italy – Thousands of Venezuelans living abroad — myself included — have spent the past hours desperately trying to contact friends and family back home as news surfaced of the devastating twin earthquakes that struck the country on Wednesday.
Venezuela, a nation that has already suffered tremendously under socialism in the past two decades, is enduring another tragedy after two magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes hit the country on Wednesday evening. The continuously climbing death toll, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) warned, has a high probability of ending up in the thousands or above.
One cannot begin to imagine the horrific moments that Venezuelans in the country just went through, and the pain of those who have lost friends and loved ones over the past hours. For many of the millions of Venezuelans who fled the country over the past decade, the next hours became a storm of uncertainty over the wellbeing of their relatives. In times like that, all one can do is pray to God for the safety of everyone.
I personally found out about the tragedy late at night (due to the six-hour time difference between Italy and Venezuela), made aware of the emergency by an old friend who now lives in Germany and whose sister lives in Caracas. The immediate concern, in my case, was to contact the two cousins who live in what used to be my home — an old building notorious for having glaring structural issues and questionable building quality. No less important was the concern for one of my last living and now elderly uncles, who lives with his family in La Guaira — a zone so heavily impacted by the earthquakes that the socialist regime deemed it a “disaster zone.” As for my father, he lives in a small town away from the earthquake’s epicenters, while the rest of my family, whom I have almost no contact with, live in areas far away from the most impacted zones.
Despite my best efforts, there was no way to contact any of them in the initial hours following the disaster. Unfortunately, Venezuela’s already flaky communications networks were rendered even less functional by the earthquake and even a WhatsApp group chat run by my old residence’s neighbors was in complete silence. The only information came from reports from local outlets indicating that the area the building is located in lost power.
Sending messages to friends and acquaintances was the next thing to try. Slowly, one by one, my friends began responding as the hours went by, stating that they were safe, other than some damage to their homes and material possessions.
By the time it was almost sunrise in Italy, one of my cousins managed to send a message stating she was unharmed. A second cousin did the same hours later, while my uncle managed to contact another relative — and with that, some of the concern dissipated at last.
As for the old apartment building, it has not collapsed – yet. The earthquakes caused notable damage to not just what used to be my home, but to the entire building. The extent of the damage is now up to experts to assess once the circumstances allow it. In the meantime, my relatives must remain living in this building despite massive cracks appearing in their building, cutting through walls and electrical outlets.
The socialist government vaguely suggested it would offer lodging to those affected by the disaster, but my relatives have yet to be issued such an offer and would likely have to wait until all those whose homes were completely destroyed were housed before the government considered them.
Access to reliable information from Venezuela still remains at times difficult thanks to the lingering effects of decades worth of censorship by the socialist regime that left a barely existent private mainstream media. One notable case is the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), banned by Maduro in 2024 after he feuded with its owner, Elon Musk. The ban was reportedly still active in the months following the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and – according to the local anti-censorship initiative VE Sin Filtro – the ban was finally lifted on Thursday morning. In light of the lack of functional alternatives and actual official emergency channels, Venezuelans have reportedly put together digital platforms to help people report missing relatives amid the lack of proper communications.
While I have the fortune of knowing that all my friends and family are accounted for — and more distant relatives safe by virtue of living far away from the most affected areas of the country — the same cannot be said for many Venezuelans who are still trying to get in touch with their relatives. Even back at home, as of Thursday morning, there are old neighbors still searching for information on missing relatives who reside in La Guaira. Sadly, I have also come to know that other Venezuelan acquaintances of mine living abroad have lost relatives over the past hours.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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