Venezuela deadly earthquake: 'Countless lives lost that in a normal country would have been rescued'

A deadly earthquake has struck Venezuela, leading to a high number of casualties, but according to experts, many of the losses could have been avoided. American-Venezuelan journalist and commentator Germania Rodriguez Paleo, in an interview with France 24, stressed that while the earthquake itself is a natural event, the scale of the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe is a direct result of decades of political decay. She pointed to corruption, weakened public institutions, deteriorating infrastructure, and the lack of an effective emergency response system as factors that transformed a geological disaster into a national tragedy. Rodriguez Paleo, a former US chief reporter for the Daily Mail, offered a forceful political interpretation, emphasizing that institutional collapse and democratic illegitimacy have exacerbated the death toll. 'Countless lives lost that in a normal country would have been rescued,' she said. Throughout the discussion, she distinguished between unavoidable natural destruction and preventable institutional failure, arguing that Venezuela's long-standing problems have made the country more vulnerable to such disasters. The exact magnitude and epicenter of the earthquake were not disclosed, but its impact has been devastating. This event draws international attention to Venezuela's crisis and the question of how much the government's inability to provide basic services contributes to the rising number of victims in natural disasters.