How much will it take to rebuild Venezuela after the earthquakes?

Global Voices reports that three weeks after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela's coastal region, the official death toll has climbed to nearly five thousand, with close to eighteen thousand people still displaced. As the emergency response shifts toward long-term recovery, attention is turning to the enormous cost of rebuilding homes, infrastructure, and the economy. Early estimates of direct physical damage range widely, from around six point seven billion dollars in a United Nations Development Programme assessment to roughly thirty-seven billion dollars — nearly forty percent of the country's economic output — in a higher United Nations analysis. Global Voices notes that Venezuela's fragile finances, years of default on external debt, and a battered currency make financing that reconstruction an extraordinary challenge.

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