CARACAS/CATIA LA MAR/LA GUAIRA, Venezuela, July 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday rejected allegations that her government reacted too slowly to destruction caused by two earthquakes which killed more than 2,000 people, after days of widespread criticism of the official response.
Civilians of all stripes - including survivors, family members, volunteer paramedics and foreign rescue teams - have descended on disaster areas, especially the hardest-hit northern state of La Guaira, since the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes struck on June 24.
Many of those digging through the rubble, along with international aid organizations, say the government's response was slow and ineffectual, with aid like food and medical supplies delayed and an ongoing lack of heavy machinery to move debris amid ongoing search operations.
"It was a natural tragedy on a scale we never imagined, even though we knew that a seismic event could occur in our country," Rodriguez said in her first press conference since taking power in January, after the U.S. ousted her predecessorNicolas Maduro. "We did not wait one, two or three days. We acted immediately."
Four thousand officials were deployed immediately, she said, rising to 14,000 the day after and then again to a current figure of 19,000. She also issued an emergency decree to activate emergency protocols, she told journalists.
"We’ve done everything in our power, and we’ll continue to do everything in our power and more," she said, adding that she had visited children in hospitals who had lost limbs and were mourning loved ones.
"I’ve had to go through some very painful experiences," Rodriguez said.
CIVILIAN-LED RESPONSE
State television has regularly shown Rodriguez meeting with military and security officials while soldiers and police have patrolled major roads in La Guaira and sometimes directedtraffic.
Still, the response to the disaster has been led by civilians, many of them volunteers, according to Reuters witnesses.
People have spent days trying to dig out loved ones with their hands, shovels and pickaxes, assisted by firefighters, civil protection corps, foreign rescue teams, student doctors and nurses, civilians who normally work as teachers and veterinarians, and occasionally a soldier.
Soldiers working for days alongside civilians in the six collapsed towers of a major public housing project in La Guaira told Reuters they had volunteered to help there.
Rodriguez said the death toll now stood at 2,595, and the government was not yet ending its search and rescue efforts.
She did not give a tally for the missing. An unofficial but widely used online list was down to some 38,500 on Thursday evening, after peaking at nearly 60,000 in the days immediately after the quakes.
A United Nations envoy said this week it was procuring 10,000 body bags for Venezuela and the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible.
Rodriguez lashed out at what she called “media laboratories” for creating a perception of chaos, and said they were politically motivated.
"The first media narrative developed in these media labs was: 'everyone head to La Guaira,' to create chaos and impede search-and-rescue operations," she said, without explanation.
The IMF and World Bank have offered aid and credit for recovery efforts, Rodriguez said. Venezuela was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund with the IMF, and money would go to audited contractors to reconstruct homes.
RESCUES ONGOING
In the days immediately after the twin tremors, much of the water, food and other basic supplies arriving in La Guaira were ferried in by thousands of civilians, many on motorcycles.
Now, volunteers are running shelters for those who have lost their homes, receiving some official help but setting their own rules and creating their own tracking system for residents.
At one of the main medical centers serving the disaster zone, a hospital in the Vargas municipality, staff and residents said the flow of patients had eased compared with the days immediately after the quakes.
About 4 miles (6 km) away, a Brazilian Navy field hospital that began operating on Monday had treated 180 people by Thursday, according to Commander Leonel Mariano. The facility, spread across five tents near the beach, includes an intensive care unit, operating theater, orthopedics, pediatrics, general medicine and a pharmacy.
"We are coordinating buses to bring people here from the shelters," Mariano said. "We haven't performed surgery yet, but we've had some intensive care cases, some serious cases."
Doctors converted a McDonald’s restaurant in La Guaira into a makeshift health center, treating about 200 patients a day since opening on Friday. The site provides emergency care, donated medicines, a pharmacy and a veterinary unit, which operates from the restaurant’s former ice cream section.
Amid the devastation, moments of survival are providing glimmers of hope for families still searching for loved ones.
Security guard Hernan Alberto Gil was rescued from the rubble of the nine-story Galerias Playa Grande shopping center early on Thursday, after days of work by rescue teams from El Salvador, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela.
"I'm grateful to God for keeping him alive for so many days," said Gusbimar Gonzalez, Gil's wife. "He endured it all like a warrior."
Mexican rescue teams pulled a dog named Sarita alive from a collapsed building after her owner alerted responders to noises beneath the debris. The dog was located by a military search-and-rescue team and a rescue dog named Kai, and then reunited with her owner, who said the rescue gave him hope that his missing daughter might be found alive.
The presence of security forces at collapsed buildings has at times sparked anger among residents.
Some Venezuelans have vented their frustration on social media, sharing videos showing security officials picking through the destruction and taking clothes, appliances andcash.
Reuters has not verified the videos’ authenticity, but the Interior Ministry said four crime scene police officials have been detained and removed from their jobs for "appropriating financial assets acquired amid the ruins."
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Caracas, Alberto Fajardo in Catia La Mar and Mayela Armas in La Guaira; additional reporting by Vivian Sequera, Deisy Buitrago, Iñigo Alexander, Marianna Parraga and Jennifery Rigby; Writing by Cassandra Garrison and Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel and Stephen Coates)
