The United States has pledged rapid assistance to Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes struck near the country’s northern coast, killing at least 32 people.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had instructed all government agencies to prepare to “move quickly” in delivering support to the earthquake-stricken nation.
“The U.S. stands ready, willing, and able to help,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening, calling Venezuela’s people the “new and great friends.”
The back-to-back tremors measured magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, flattening buildings in the capital Caracas and forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency across the country.
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez confirmed that 32 people had been killed and 700 injured, delivering the figures in a national address on Wednesday night.
The U.S. Geological Survey issued two consecutive red alerts through its PAGER system, estimating a 41% probability that fatalities could exceed 10,000 and a 17% chance they could reach 100,000.
The agency also projected that the catastrophic earthquakes could reduce Venezuela’s GDP by as much as 7%, compounding the country’s already severe economic difficulties.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said the U.S. was in contact with Venezuelan authorities and had begun mobilising assistance for the South American nation throughout the day.
Senior State Department official Jeremy Lewin confirmed that a disaster assistance team and task force had already been deployed to coordinate search and rescue teams, medical supplies, and humanitarian resources.
The earthquakes are among the strongest to strike Venezuela in the past century, occurring along the seismically active zone where the Caribbean Plate meets the South American Plate.
The swift U.S. offer of assistance reflects a degree of diplomatic realignment between the Trump administration and the Venezuelan interim government, led by Rodriguez.
Washington seized then-president Nicolas Maduro in a January military intervention, after which the U.S. has remained Venezuela’s largest oil buyer.
The estimated value of U.S.-controlled Venezuelan oil exports surged to $3.7 billion in April from $600 million in January, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Council on Foreign Relations estimated that around $8 billion in flows have moved through the arrangement with little transparency or oversight, with India and Spain the next largest recipients.