Just after 6 pm on Wednesday, June 24, two major earthquakes struck Venezuela. It was a bank holiday so many people were in their homes – some watching the Brazil-Scotland World Cup game.
tom phillips Was in Caracas just a month ago. As the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, he has reported from Venezuela through high-profile political drama, economic disaster and one of the world’s largest displacement crises, which has forced 8 million Venezuelans out of the country. But the scenes following the disaster have been devastating.
The disaster was caused by political incompetence, in a country still reeling from the dramatic capture of President Maduro by the US military and the installation of his deeply unpopular successor, Delsey Rodriguez. But, Tom tells Nosheen Iqbal, Ordinary Venezuelans have rushed to the affected areas with axes, hoes and their bare hands to offer help in trying to pull survivors from the debris. He explains how Venezuela will try and rebuild.
