Venezuela’s interim president said on Sunday the country would not descend into social unrest after the twin earthquakes which killed more than 3,000 people and left thousands more missing.
One of Latin America’s worst earthquake disasters, the June 24 shocks collapsed scores of buildings, leaving thousands homeless, especially in the coastal La Guaira area north of the capital Caracas.
“There will be no social unrest here, what we have here is deep social solidarity,” Delcy Rodriguez said during a military ceremony marking the country’s independence day.
The death toll has risen to 3,342 with more than 16,700 injured in the disaster, according to updated official figures released on Sunday.
Many Venezuelans have expressed anger at what they see as the US-backed government’s inadequate response to the disaster before international teams arrived.
Rodriguez has defended the response, saying thousands of public officials and rescue teams were dispatched to help dig out victims and find survivors.
Rodriguez’s main rival, exiled Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, issued her own appeal.
