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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Disasters & Emergencies

Venezuela's La Esperanza cemetery works 24 hours after earthquake, death toll surpasses 3,800

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Venezuela's La Esperanza cemetery is operating 24 hours to bury victims of a recent double earthquake.
  • Crematoriums in Caracas and the La Guaira morgue have also been working continuously for over two weeks.
  • Over 3,800 deaths have been confirmed, with ongoing recovery efforts and an estimated 30,000 people unaccounted for.

The La Esperanza municipal cemetery, expanded due to a recent double earthquake, is working around the clock to bury victims. Simultaneously, crematoriums in Caracas and the La Guaira morgue have been operating 24/7 for over two weeks, processing a death toll that now exceeds 3,800.

It is being prepared to have a capacity of about 2,000 or 3,000 graves. The cemetery has been full for a long time and since the very night of the earthquake, work has been underway to expand it.

— Cemetery workerDescribing the emergency expansion of the La Esperanza cemetery to accommodate earthquake victims.

At La Esperanza, located in Carayaca, heavy machinery is expanding the grounds to accommodate the influx. Cemetery staff are working at maximum capacity to ensure proper burial protocols are followed, avoiding mass graves. A cemetery worker, speaking anonymously, stated the expansion aims for a capacity of 2,000 to 3,000 graves, with around 600 earthquake victims already interred. He assured that unidentified bodies are buried with numbers for later identification, emphasizing normal burial procedures are maintained.

Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to recover bodies from collapsed structures in Catia La Mar and Caraballeda, the areas hardest hit by the disaster. The official death toll has risen to 3,889, an increase of 88 in 24 hours. While the government has not released figures for the missing, citizen initiatives estimate about 30,000 people remain incommunicado.

Families come for burials, but those who have not been identified are buried in a grave with a number to put the name on when they are identified. People can rest assured because they are being given a normal burial. There are no mass graves here.

— Cemetery workerExplaining the protocol for unidentified bodies at the La Esperanza cemetery.

Infrastructure strain has led authorities to establish a makeshift morgue in Los Silos, near La Guaira port. Under tents, dozens of containers and body bags await classification, with donated coffins piling up. A volunteer confirmed the constant flow of deceased, stating, "Twenty bodies arrived tonight."

Twenty bodies arrived tonight.

— VolunteerConfirming the continuous arrival of deceased at the makeshift morgue in Los Silos.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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