Earthquakes in Venezuela: Government of Delcy Rodríguez says that there are 315 unrecognized bodies and justifies not giving the number of missing people after earthquakes

“Until yesterday, unidentified, 315 people, who could not be identified because they were neither recognized nor by capturing their fingerprint (…) we were able to associate them with an identification; That is 7% of the total number of deaths.“Rodríguez said in a press conference in Caracas.

He double earthquake of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 has left, according to figures offered by the Chavista representative, 4,333 dead and almost 18,000 people homeless.

Venezuela has not offered an updated figure for weeks of missing people after the double earthquake – independent platforms put the number of people still not contacted at almost 30,000 – but Rodríguez assured that they are not hiding them, since since the day after the double earthquake they have been giving the number of people who died, which is the only certainty they have.

“We cannot manage ourselves based on speculation, but we have to manage ourselves based on reality.“, justified the brother of the president in charge, Delcy Rodriguezwhen asked by the media about a lack of information in that regard.

In addition, he also addressed criticism that the clearing process is being slow, claiming that this is precisely how it should be, since the Venezuelan Government still trusts that there may be people alive buried there.

“This stage (of debris removal) has to be done slowly because if it is done abruptly and large machines are introduced and large quantities are moved, we do not know if we can take a human life in this process and on the other hand the relatives want to rescue the bodies of the relatives who died.”Rodríguez alleged.

Regarding the unidentified people, the Chavista rejected that they are being buried in common graves, and explained that in the La Esperanza cemeterylocated about 25 kilometers from the urban center of Catia La Mar (one of the affected areas), these bodies are being buried after samples have been taken for future identification.

EFE was able to verify on Friday, from a distance, that work is being done in this cemetery for an expansion that has capacity for “about 2,000 or 3,000 graves” more, according to one worker.

In addition, the burial process is being carried out in several rows, where the name or a number for the unidentified is placed on white crosses, in addition to flowers and stones that delimit the niche.

“A photographic impression of their teeth was taken from each of these people, a fingerprint was taken when possible from each of these deceased people, but a skin sample was also taken to take a DNA sample from the loved one who came to pick them up to identify them and give them to them.“, said.