The Venezuelan Earthquakes

Loading player...
The people of Venezuela are still reeling from the aftermath of two powerful earthquakes which struck near the capital Caracas in June.

As buildings collapsed, the impact was devastating. Over two and a half thousand are recorded dead but, with tens of thousands of people still missing, the final number will be much higher.

We hear from people who were in Caracas and the nearby port of La Guaira - one of the worst affected areas.

Some have been made homeless. Some are students, who were about to graduate and are now mourning the loss of friends. Some, like Gonzalo, are continuing to search for those who are still trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

While rescue teams have arrived from all over the world, Gonzalo is dismayed at the shortage of aid from his own government.

"As Venezuelans right now we cannot afford to stop and process. We are stuck in the loop of helping, helping, helping, helping, helping. We have to get each other out, we have to get each other out, which is a beautiful thing," said Gonzalo.

"But the painful thing is that it's just a sign of how alone we are. How destroyed the network of this country is and that is the most desolating part of it all."

Host: James Reynolds
BBC producers: Iqra Farooq and Ryan Keane.
Boffin Media producer: Sue Nelson
Editors: Harriet Oliver and Arja Haikonen

An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production in partnership with the OS team.
3 Jul 11PM English United Kingdom Education

Other recent episodes

Was ‘Made in China’ made in America?

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, all this week The Global Story is exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the US has shaped the modern world. For decades in the US, “Made in China” signified a product that was cheap, poorly made, and, in some cases, produced…
7 Jul 8PM 30 min

China’s collapsing population

Worried about a ballooning population, the Chinese government introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980. At the time it seemed urgent to find ways to reduce the number of babies being born. China today has the opposite problem - too few births. Since the one-child policy was scrapped 10 years…
6 Jul 8PM 30 min

Karin Slaughter: thriller penned in mountain cabin

From her secluded mountain cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, USA, best-selling author Karin Slaughter crafts stories which keep millions awake at night. She tells Lucy Collingwood how she works best – at her bespoke ‘cockpit’ desk, a couple of intense weeks at a time, where she juggles…
5 Jul 8PM 28 min

A History of the United States in 100 Objects

100 Objects #1: The Century Safe In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976…
5 Jul 1AM 29 min

Balochistan's disappeared

When Dr. Mahrang Baloch was a teenager, she joined hundreds of families across Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan to search for her father, who had disappeared. Activists and rights groups say thousands of ethnic Baloch people have disappeared over the past two decades, alleging many were detained by security forces,…
4 Jul 8AM 29 min