Venezuela earthquakes create opening for military’s return to public life

The Conversation reports that three weeks after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela on June twenty-fourth, the death toll is approaching five thousand people, with eighteen thousand left homeless and twenty-one thousand more in shelters. The hardest-hit state is La Guaira on the Caribbean coast, where the armed forces are once again deeply involved in the disaster response. But the human rights group Provea has criticized what it called an excessive military presence near relief camps, warning that saturating the zone with armed agents is slowing aid delivery and could serve as a form of social control. The government of interim president Delcy Rodríguez says the militarization is necessary to let relief reach affected families, and has launched a reconstruction plan called Venezuela Reborn.

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