After Venezuela quakes, citizens lead rescues amid military theft accusations

Volunteers and rescuers help to find survivors in a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela, on June 30, 2026, following the June 24 twin earthquakes. MIGUEL MEDINA/Pool via REUTERS

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela, July 1 - Most of the time, Alexander Delgado teaches physical education at a school in the central Venezuelan state of Aragua.

But for the past week, he's been running a rescue crew staffed by a rotating cast of neighbors and out-of-state volunteers tunneling into the rubble of a public housing development to search for survivors and victims of the back-to-back earthquakes that devastated a coastal state and parts of Venezuela’s capital.

Citizens like Delgado - often just with shovels, ropes and their bare hands - have been trying to supplement what they describe as a slow and inadequate state response to the country's strongest tremors in a century.

Among the challenges, they say, is thwarting efforts by some members of the Venezuelan military and police to block aid, co-opt donations and even loot from collapsed buildings.

Senior government officials have attributed growing civilian anger and reports of military personnel involvement in looting and slow aid to misinformation. They have urged the public to ignore "manipulation strategies on social networks" and rely on official information.

Delgado has no formal rescue training but learned first aid at work, and traveled to La Guaira, the hardest-hit state, a day after the tremors to lend a hand.

Venezuelan citizens like him and international rescue teams led rescue efforts, he said. “You see the firefighters, (Mexican rescue team) Los Topos, but you don't see the state per se."

His team has spent five days shifting rubble and listening intently for sounds of life under the hot Caribbean sun. They are supported by other local volunteers, who bring water, face masks, ice and knowledge about the eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing development, six of whose towers are now debris.

By Tuesday, six days in, there were two international rescue teams and some local firefighters, as well as one truck from Venezuela's forensic service, but they still lacked needed heavy equipment, he said.

That afternoon the crew uncovered the body of a woman, lying on her side with her back to them, between a floor slab and other debris. They halted work to await her removal by the forensic service.

Backlash over the Venezuelan government’s response comes as acting President Delcy Rodriguez is trying to shore up her power following the ouster of her predecessor Nicolas Maduro in January.

“Delcy and