Dozens of European nationals have died in the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, the bulk of them Spaniards and Portuguese, with more than 200 still unaccounted for as governments across the continent raised their tolls.
Spain’s foreign ministry reported 17 of its nationals dead and 150 missing, with a further 12 located beneath collapsed buildings but beyond the reach of rescuers. Among the confirmed dead was Isabel Jara, the Canary Islands government’s delegate in Venezuela, born in La Guaira to a family of Canarian emigrants.
The Spanish community in the country numbered about 147,000 people, an estimated 70,000 of them Canary Islanders and their descendants. Spain had flown Military Emergencies Unit (UME) rescuers to Caracas and begun repatriating nationals, two flights bringing more than 100 home.
Portugal’s foreign ministry had reported nine nationals killed and 56 missing, though later tallies put the dead higher among the country’s large emigrant community. Most belonged to families of Madeiran descent, whose ties to Venezuela stretch back generations.
Italy confirmed the death of at least one citizen, a man holding dual Italian and Venezuelan nationality killed when a building collapsed in La Guaira, with later reporting citing up to four. Rome estimates about 170,000 Italian passport-holders live in the country.
The pattern held across the European tolls, with almost none of the foreign dead being visitors. They were overwhelmingly people born in Venezuela or settled there for decades, the descendants of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish immigrants drawn to the country in earlier generations.
France, Switzerland and Portugal were among the European states that sent rescue specialists, part of a force of more than 1,600 foreign rescuers from around two dozen countries. Pope Leo XIV released an initial €100,000 in aid.
More than 1,430 people had been killed nationwide and tens of thousands remained unaccounted for, according to National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, with the toll still rising. The coastal state of La Guaira, north of Caracas, was the worst-hit area and had been declared a disaster zone.
The two tremors, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 and striking seconds apart, were the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century.
