Venezuela offers rescue teams to Colombia as recovery efforts continue at home

The government of Venezuela has offered search-and-rescue teams and humanitarian assistance to Colombia following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Monday.

The offer was announced by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia González, who said Caracas was making specialized personnel available to assist Colombian authorities with the emergency response.

The proposal comes while Venezuela continues to deal with the aftermath of the earthquakes that struck the country in June. According to the information cited by El Diario NY, the latest available figures indicated that only 16.5% of the debris had been removed, leaving approximately 83.5% still to be cleared.

The report also states that Venezuela’s official death toll had reached 6,125, while the number of people whose whereabouts remained unknown was uncertain. A citizen-led database cited in the report listed approximately 29,400 people as still unlocated, although that figure is not an official government count and could include duplicate or outdated cases.

The United Nations Development Programme estimated that the June earthquakes generated approximately 2.1 million tons of debris, illustrating the scale of the recovery operation still facing Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the assistance offered to Colombia includes personnel with search-and-rescue capabilities that could help locate survivors and respond to collapsed structures following the powerful earthquake.