Venezuela’s US-backed acting president Delcy Rodriguez has issued a fiery defence of her government’s response to last week’s devastating earthquakes – which has claimed the lives of 2,595 people.
Ms Rodriguez lashed out at critics who said authorities reacted too slowly, and has pushed back on suggestions that the number of those killed is far higher than the government has acknowledged.
She has also rejected accusations that the nation’s alleged shoddily constructed social housing exacerbated the disaster.
Two earthquakes, of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, struck Venezuela on 24 June.
Damaged buildings in Caraballeda. Pic: AP
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble in La Guaira. Pic: AP
Residents of the hardest-hit state, La Guaira, have complained that the initial absence of a serious government search-and-rescue operation left them alone to scour for neighbours and loved ones with their bare hands.
Rescuers have lamented the country’s shortages of specialised equipment, while experts have warned that substandard construction of social housing projects – a hallmark policy of ex-president Hugo Chavez – left neighbourhoods vulnerable to quakes.
Interim leader Ms Rodriguez, who replaced former president Nicolas Maduro after the US removed him from power in January, refused to accept criticism at a press conference for foreign journalists in the capital, Caracas, on Thursday.
Wearing a black ribbon as a symbol of mourning, she said: “We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately.”
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez speaking at a press conference on Thursday. Pic: AP
Ms Rodriguez criticised media outlets that she accused of spreading misinformation, saying: “To politicise a humanitarian tragedy like this – when the Venezuelan government and its authorities have spared no effort, public, private, national or international – is disgraceful.”
Authorities have counted at least 2,595 people killed by the earthquake as of Thursday.
More than 38,000 reports of missing people – many of them likely buried beneath the rubble – have been uploaded to a website set up by the Venezuelan opposition, as the government has not given official figures for those missing.
When asked about the true, still-unknown toll of the disaster, citing reports that the United Nations is procuring 10,000 body bags, Ms Rodriguez defended the government’s tally.
She said: “We do not want to speculate. The numbers we provide are rigorously verified.”
In La Guaira, several of Mr Chavez’s signature social housing projects were razed by the earthquakes, prompting suspicions of flawed construction.
Ms Rodriguez deflected the accusations, claiming that about 80% of the collapsed buildings were allegedly privately developed.
Emergency workers in La Guaira recovering the bodies of earthquake victims. Pic: AP
Amid images of officials carrying body bags and stacking wooden coffins, there was good news when a security guard was pulled alive from a collapsed shopping centre basement in La Guaira on Thursday.
Trapped in an air pocket beneath the concrete, Hernan Alberto Gil Flores survived on the food and water that rescuers managed to pass him through crevices.
Crowds cheered when he was eventually freed and lifted to safety on a stretcher.
Pressed on reports that residents were on their own in the first 48 hours after the quakes, with heavy machinery and official aid scarce, Ms Rodriguez acknowledged that “naturally, at the sites where the building collapsed, the first people to arrive were survivors of the collapse itself, relatives and neighbours”.
But she railed against what she called “narratives manufactured in propaganda laboratories” and claimed that a day after the quakes, “we had already mobilised the full capacity of the Venezuelan state, together with the private sector”.
Read more from Sky News:
Violent protests over luxury resort linked to Trump’s son-in-law
Thai monks killed as boy crashes pickup truck into pilgrimage walk
The disaster has evolved into the biggest test of competence yet for Ms Rodriguez, who served as deputy to Mr Maduro until he was ousted.
She became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration.
Her comments on Thursday came a day before the extension of her 180-day mandate as acting leader was set to expire. It remains unclear what is going to happen once the deadline passes on Friday.
Under Venezuela’s constitution, temporary absences are to be filled by the vice president for up to 90 days. These interim appointments can be extended by the national assembly for an additional 90 days.
The national assembly, controlled by Ms Rodriguez’s party, can trigger a snap election if lawmakers declare the post permanently vacant.
In contrast to the aftermath of Venezuela’s catastrophic 1999 landslides, when then-president Mr Chavez rejected offers of assistance from an adversarial US, Ms Rodriguez has publicly welcomed aid and rescue teams from governments across the political spectrum.
She singled out Israel, and praised US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying they “remained constantly attentive and offered support”.
