Dozens of European nationals have died in the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, the bulk of them Spaniards and Portuguese, with nearly 200 still unaccounted for as governments across the continent raised their tolls.
Spain’s foreign ministry reported 27 of its nationals dead and 137 missing, the latter figure falling as more were accounted for, with a further 11 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 there numbered about 147,000 people, an estimated 70,000 of them Canary Islanders and their descendants. Spain had sent Military Emergencies Unit (UME) rescuers and a 90-strong medical team, pledged a further €300,000 for shelter materials and flown nearly 200 nationals 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 an international force drawn from more than 50 countries. The European Union said it was dispatching hundreds of responders from member states and more than $5 million in humanitarian aid, while Pope Leo XIV released an initial €100,000.
Nearly 2,300 people had been killed nationwide and more than 11,000 injured, with about 50,000 still unaccounted for, according to National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez. 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.
