Chávez-era housing projects collapse, leaving thousands homeless
The United Nations said the damage to infrastructure from the June 24 earthquakes totals about $37 billion, a sum equivalent to roughly a third of Venezuela’s annual economic output. Researchers from Oregon State University estimated that 69,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in coastal communities such as Catia La Mar in the state of La Guaira, a 45-minute drive from Caracas.
The Trump administration said it has provided $386 million in postquake assistance, more than the U.S. has delivered to other countries struck by recent earthquakes, even after Washington dismantled its main foreign-aid agency last year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged a “whole of government response,” according to a State Department statement. American soldiers have surveyed damage, overseen airport repairs and delivered aid supplies.
The quakes struck just as Washington was preparing to reap the benefits of its alliance with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, with Venezuela’s world’s-largest oil reserves and vast mineral deposits opening to American investors. The U.S. says it now controls Venezuela’s billions of dollars in oil revenues and state finances, putting Washington at the center of any reconstruction efforts.
In the coastal town of La Guaira, residents described the devastation. Danny Muñoz, a bricklayer, said he pulled the lifeless body of his pregnant stepdaughter from debris after the apartment building where she lived collapsed. “We’re in the hands of God, as well as the Americans,” Muñoz said. “No one else can save us now.”
Willian Romero, a mechanic, said developers told him his new home was earthquake-proof when he moved into the Hugo Chávez housing project 14 years ago. The cluster of blue-paneled, four-story apartment buildings, constructed by a Turkish contractor, crumbled into piles of twisted metal and plywood when the earthquakes struck. Romero’s wife and children were pulled alive from the rubble; they now live in roadside tents. “I’m back to zero,” he said. “Let’s see where the government sends us now.”
The late socialist leader Hugo Chávez built millions of homes for the poor with oil revenue, locking in voter support. His government gave building contracts to companies from Iran, China and Belarus. But the structures were vulnerable to the quakes due to shoddy construction and the use of cheap materials, including Styrofoam as filler between cement slabs.
Alejandro Linayo, a Venezuelan engineer and natural-disaster specialist, said many buildings were constructed on loose, soft sediment that amplifies shaking during tremors. He said corruption undermined an otherwise-strong building code. “You have to question if they were really doing things properly,” Linayo said, who worked on a Japanese-funded project during Chávez’s government that studied how to reduce damage from natural disasters.
Humberto Garcia, a 57-year-old accountant, paid about $5,000 to buy his apartment in the Chávez project six years ago. He said the buildings were sold as ready for earthquakes, but residents lacked money for upkeep. Water leaks went unattended, damaging the structures and likely contributing to their collapse. Garcia now camps near his destroyed apartment. “What I hope is that this tragedy gives us a chance to change,” he said.
Ángel Cárdenas, an infrastructure specialist at the Latin American development bank CAF, said building homes for the roughly 26,000 people left homeless should be a priority. “If you fail to deal with the infrastructure, you could later face security, governance and sanitation problems,” he said during a virtual event with the Atlantic Council.
Rodríguez has used the earthquake crisis to amplify her calls for Washington to further loosen sanctions on Venezuela and reopen access to government accounts held overseas, including gold bullion at the Bank of England. Calixto Ortega Sánchez, her top economic adviser, said the quake costs will weigh on the interim government’s plans to restructure its approximately $200 billion debt load.
The failure to rebuild risks more unrest, creating a challenge not only for Rodríguez’s hold on power but also for a U.S. administration that sees her as vital to its plans for stabilizing Venezuela.