Key port opens with US aid

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela, June 30 (AFP): The United States military repaired and reopened a key seaport in the hardest hit area of Venezuela on Monday, as the country began burying more than 1,700 victims of twin earthquakes that have left tens of thousands still missing.
Five days after powerful back-to-back quakes flattened entire neighborhoods, the task of recovering the dead loomed large and hopes of finding survivors faded.
By the latest official count, some 1,700 are dead and 5,000 are injured, with no governmental word on the number missing. Other estimates place these in the tens of thousands.
The Port of La Guaira re-opened, where it was observed a warehouse storing hundreds of unidentified bodies encased in white and black body bags as well as a few coffins. The USS Fort Lauderdale was docked and delivering aid.
Dozens of relatives from this devastated region waited outside the makeshift morgue for news of their families as forensic personnel in blue uniforms examined the corpses.
Nearby, buildings turned into mountains of rubble are being dug at by rescuers and volunteers in the hope of finding life. It is a remote possibility five days after the quakes.
American airmen were also helping restore traffic at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas, which was also heavily damaged.
On Monday, a new 4.6 magnitude tremor rekindled fear among the population.
The government has militarized La Guaira and imposed a permit requirement to enter the disaster zone.
Residents are not hiding their anger over the government's slow and limited aid in a country mired in a deep crisis that has driven millions to emigrate in recent years.
A total of 27 countries have mobilized nearly 40 search and rescue teams. They include more than 2,000 troops and personnel, along with more than 160 dogs, according to Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations coordinator in Venezuela.
She said the United Nations will provide 10,000 body bags, though it hopes the final toll will be lower.
The critical 72-hour window to find survivors, however, closed Saturday at 6:04 pm.
Still, miracles can happen.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado accused the government Monday of impeding her return to the country as it reels from last week's twin earthquakes that left more than 1,700 people dead.
Machado has been in exile since December when she managed a dramatic escape from Venezuela to receive her Nobel prize in Oslo.
In a message posted on X from Panama, the opposition figure accused Caracas of impeding her return by shutting down the South American country's airspace.
Machado said in her video message that she wanted to return to accompany Venezuelans in "these heart-wrenching hours."
But the government had closed "commercial airspace of Venezuela to stop my entering," she said.
"They had to reverse it, but they have threatened those who want to facilitate my return."
The international airport in Maiquetia, which serves Caracas, was closed because of earthquake damage.
It has been partially reopened for humanitarian flights, but the airports of the central city of Valencia and the eastern city Maracaibo are operating for international flights.
The double quakes occurred six months after then-president Nicolas Maduro was captured in a US military operation. His vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is now interim president and governs under pressure from Washington.
The opposition led by Machado claimed victory for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in the 2024 presidential elections, after which Maduro declared his reelection despite claims of fraud.
Machado announced in May from Panama her determination to negotiate a democratic transition with the interim government in Venezuela. Rodriguez's administration has not responded to her demands.