Jason Wang, who was visiting from the US, said he was “very fortunate” to have survived the earthquake in Caracas after narrowly avoiding getting trapped in a cable car on El Ávila mountain.
“I was next in line to go into the cable car right as the earthquake was happening,” Wang told CNN. “And then the building just started to shake.” He believes around 100 people may have been stuck in the cable cars overnight after the system shutdown.
The update comes as rescuers work to find more people trapped under the rubble during the critical “golden window” of up to 72 hours following the earthquake. The death toll is expected to rise significantly as search teams find more victims.
“We haven’t slept a wink in our efforts to save lives,” Rodríguez told Venezuela’s state broadcaster, as she also praised the arrival of international assistance and emergency crews. “We have saved dozens of lives.”
More than 100 buildings collapsed in La Guaira state, the area most impacted by the double earthquake that shook Venezuela on Wednesday, according to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
During a broadcast on the state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Cabello detailed that Caraballeda and Catia La Mar were the areas of the state most affected, adding that 11,500 security personnel would be deployed to La Guaira on Friday to “guarantee peace.”
Human rights agencies have escalated calls for access to and freedom for political prisoners in Venezuela, after two powerful earthquakes ripped through the South American nation on Wednesday.
Two international agencies demanded the government lift censorship on online platforms and social media channels, warning that failure to do so could cost lives.
Human Rights Watch insisted that authorities “should unblock” censored websites to “allow all detainees, including political prisoners, to communicate with their families.”
The US-based Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center requested “transparent information on the situation of political prisoners and the conditions of detention centers.”
“We reiterate our call for the immediate release of all political prisoners,” the center added.
Amnesty International echoed those demands, saying officials “must guarantee the right to life, personal integrity, and freedom while assisting the population.” Rescue workers and relatives of those detained should have access to “all detention centres” to “verify the safety of all detainees and supply basic needs, including critical health care,” the agency added.
“Venezuelan authorities must immediately lift the unlawful and disproportionate restrictions on the liberty of the thousands of former victims of arbitrary detention,” Amnesty International said.
As of May 25, more than 400 prisoners remain in custody, according to figures compiled by the nongovernmental organization Foro Penal, following years of authoritarian rule.
Remember: The two powerful quakes struck just months after US forces seized the former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, roiling political instability in a country beset by economic crises and hyperinflation.