Venezuela on its knees after the earthquake, new shock: today’s news

Critical situation in many hospitals, particularly between Caracas and La Guaira: several facilities are struggling with shortages of water, antibiotics, IV solutions, anesthetics. Meanwhile, in the last few hours, the United States Geological Survey reported a new 4.9 magnitude earthquake on the northern coast of the country.

A new shock

The new tremor was detected at 6.16pm local time yesterday, the first hours of the day in Italy. The epicenter was located 44 kilometers north of Maracay, in the state of Aragua, at a depth of 4.6 kilometers, according to the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research (Funvisis).

User comments immediately arrived on social media: the new tremor was felt in the states of Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, La Guaira and Caracas. During the afternoon, Funvisis confirmed at least 13 events of medium or low intensity in the surroundings of La Guaira, Naiguatá, Boca de Aroa, Maracay and San Felipe, according to Venezuelan media.

Tajani: “First team from Italy arrived, financial help available”

“This night the first team sent from Italy arrived, the first plane landed at an airport near Caracas. Our firefighters, the crisis unit and the civil protection are already at work”, said the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, taking stock from Dubrovnik on the earthquake in Venezuela on ‘Uno Mattina Weekly’, on Rai1.

The Foreign Minister announced the arrival of a second plane, expected this evening, with Italian rescuers. Tajani spoke of “an unfortunately terrible picture”, confirming as regards the Italians that there are three dead, four wounded and 42 missing.

“We have provided the first financial aid, but we are ready to do much more than we have done to date,” Tajani also said. According to what was specified by the Farnesina, the first tranche of Italian aid to Venezuela amounts to five million euros. Three million have been allocated to Italian civil society organizations already operating in the country, one million in support of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and one million in favor of the World Food Programme.

“There are many humanitarian and economic offers from private Italian citizens” to help the victims of the devastating earthquake that hit Venezuela, “but we need to see how we can finalize this aid because there are security and organizational problems”, declared the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, in a press point on the sidelines of the Med9 meeting in Dubrovnik.

“Many people would like to go and help, given the connection between our community and the Italian-Venezuelan community”, continued Tajani, highlighting the need to “work in close connection with the Italian authorities”.