Venezuela earthquakes: Disaster, poverty and political turmoil | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. I'm Valerie Sanderson and I'm. joined by Luis Fajardo. Luis, [snorts] Venezuela has declared a. state of emergency because of the. earthquakes that have happened in the. country. What can you tell us? >> The images and the news we're getting. from Venezuela are truly heartbreaking. The amount of destruction that the. country has suffered and it is going to. have to deal with a huge task of. reconstruction. From what the the first. images we're getting, we see images in. Caracas in the Venezuelan capital of.

entire rows of high-rise buildings very. seriously damaged. In some cases even. flattened basically. Also images in. other areas of the of the Caracas. metropolitan area. People in their. neighborhood seeing their houses or the. houses of their neighbors destroyed. The. authorities are saying that one of the. worst hits or possibly the worst hit. area is the city is the the area around. La Guaira. La Guaira is a port. relatively close to the to the capital. to Caracas. It is also very where the.

international airport is to. Maiquetia International Airport which. the the airport is serving the nation's. capital. It also controls most of the. international air traffic of the. country. This airport has been very. seriously damaged according to. authorities. It is has to be closed for. a while and there are. concern that other parts of the country. are going to also be a reporting the. serious damages as more information. becomes available. >> We understand something like a quarter.

of the population needed urgently even. before this natural disaster. Explain more about that. >> Venezuela is still a reeling from the. difficulties of many years of economic. chaos. You'd have to describe it that. way during the past Maduro. administration. During that time of. course Venezuela suffered all kinds of. economic problems. It suffered. hyperinflation and also a huge. outflow of migrants to other countries.

in Latin America and to other parts to. the US, to Europe. One of the again, one. of the striking elements of this tragedy. is so many Venezuelans abroad, millions. of Venezuelans abroad, trying to come to. terms with with what happened and trying. to find out about their loved ones, of. course. So, yes, Venezuela has been. suffering a lot. It had been seen as. relatively stabilizing its economy in. more recent times, but still a very. large part of the population, as you. say,

suffering a very, very difficult. condition, which is surely going to. become even more difficult to manage. with this major tragedy that has. happened in the country. >> Well, yes, as you said, very difficult. conditions. What does it mean, do you. think, for response to the disaster on. the ground? >> That is going to be clearly a very big. challenge for Venezuelan authorities. Also, tricky political situation that is that. the country is facing, of course, after. the January military operation led by. the US in which.

the former president Nicolas Maduro was. removed from power. It is unclear. exactly what kind of role the US is. going to have in this. rescue. operation. The of course, President. Trump has already said and other. high-ranking US officials have said that. the US is going to offer a lot of. support to Venezuela, but it is tricky. again because of the political. circumstance that the country is. experiencing. The Trump administration. said it had taken the deliberate.

decision when this January operation. took place of leaving a lot of. officials and people close to the former. administration in place because they. said then in in January of this year. that if everyone was removed, it would. cause chaos. It would cause anarchy. So, they needed to keep a lot of the. government system in place, the old. government system in place. And this has. created a very awkward situation in. which a lot of people who had.

a strong allegiance to the to to the. Maduro administration and in fact had. been taught to think of the United. States as their main enemy. And they had. said for many years that the United. States had was their main enemy. Now, these are the people that the US would. need to work with presumably to try to. get all the aid and to try to start the. reconstruction process. So, it is going. to be. interesting and challenging, many. observers are saying, to see how this. actually works out in practice when the. US starts to send aid and try to help.

Venezuela in in other ways. >> Well, we should say that the US have. already said that they're going to have. a quick response. I mean, what is mostly. needed now? >> It is. certainly initially there's. of course a search and rescue operation. going on. Venezuela has said that it has. received many offers of aid not only. from the United States, from from many. other countries in Latin America and. even further afield to try to find of. course the many people who are still. missing, the many many people who are.

still missing. Of course, we don't have. a clear idea of the numbers yet. But. it's certainly the first hours as in. most tragedies of this kind it is going. to be a search and rescue operation. But. then in the months and even the years. after, you're definitely going to have. to see a very big influx of capital, of. technical know-how, of managerial. know-how to try to rebuild the. infrastructure which surely has been. very damaged during this tragedy that. has happened in there as well. >> Well, President Trump he has already.

promised redevelopment money and. reinvestment in the country, hasn't he? I mean, how do you think this disaster. might affect that? >> Well, clearly again Venezuela is going to have. more of a challenge in trying to um, redevelop its. economic system with this tragedy. Of. course, a lot of the expectations of. economic recovery in Venezuela during. this very troubled year were centered. around the idea of the oil industry the.

returning to its former glory. You know, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves. proven oil reserves in the world, but. the the oil industry was a shadow of. itself in recent years because of all. the mismanagement of the political. problems that the country had faced. And. there was a lot of hope in the idea that. with. the the new political arrangement, there. was going to be a lot of investment into. the oil industry, which would have a. positive impact for the international. economy, of course, but mainly for. Venezuelans. The idea that this was.

going to be the main source of. rebuilding their country after all these. years of of economic unrest and. political unrest. Now, it's going to be. probably harder. Now, it is said that. the oil infrastructure there is not a. lot of information of direct hits on the. oil infrastructure. Actually, a lot of. the oil facilities were in other parts. of the country that apparently were not. as directly hit by the earthquake. But. certainly, I mean, starting from the. the very, very basic situation in which.

a lot of the communications of the. country are not working. The. international airport seemed very. damaged. So, of course, this is going to. create additional pressures, additional. challenges for Venezuelans who have not. had a an easy time by any means of in in. the in the last few years. >> You're describing, Luis, a very troubled. country. Now, we have a natural. disaster. As you said, the economy is in. dire straits. And there are also calls. for free and fair elections. Do you think that's going to be.

turbocharged by what's happening? That. people want to have a say in what. happens going forward after this. disaster? >> Certainly, in in January, just after the. the the removal of Nicolas Maduro, there. was a lot of expectation that a lot of. change was going to happen in Venezuela. very quickly. Uh the people were seeing. the the the the prospect of of of new. elections happening soon, of the release. of all political prisoners, of a return. to the democratic normality that the. country once had. This has not taken.

place. Of course, the Trump. administration has been saying that it. has to work very gradually and very. carefully to maintain the stability of. the system. So, they it has been. frustrating for many Venezuelans, without a doubt, that there has there. have been no direct announcements of. imminent presidential elections. And the. very fact that the. acting president of Venezuela, Delcy. Rodriguez, who was a very prominent. member of the previous government, she's. still in charge. The Trump.

administration has often said that they. have they are working very well with. her, that they're very happy with this. arrangement. So, a lot of Venezuelans. were thinking, when is this actually. going to happen? When are we going to. move to the next stage of the. normalization of the country? And. certainly with this tragedy, I imagine. that many people will will be also. saying, we need political change in. Venezuela. And that is what they have. been asking for, and there's certainly. going to be pressure on the US. government to continue and maybe. accelerate this. path towards.

a democratic system in Venezuela. >> What about the response on the ground. from the Venezuelan authorities. themselves to these earthquakes? Is it. effective? >> Venezuela, as we've been discussing, has. had a. very very troubled last few years. And. one of the things that has often been. said, even before the the this tragedy, was. the the lack of capacity of the. Venezuelan state to respond to many. needs of the citizenship. They they they. after so many years of troubles, a lot.

of state institutions are seen as not. working very well. So, there's a lot of. of. about how effective the the immediate. response is going to be. undertaken by the Venezuelan government. Certainly a lot of difficulties again, communications are very badly affected. Even before this, Venezuela was a. country that faced very frequent power. outages, things like that. And imagine I. imagine with the with the hit of of of. of the earthquake, it's going to be even. more challenging. So a lot of doubts of.

how the Venezuelan government and state. authorities are going to respond to this. tragedy. They certainly again are asking. for international help. A lot of. countries are offering it and they most. likely will be needing a lot of it in in. the next few weeks and and even months. >> Thanks Luis. That was Luis Fajardo. there. If you want to hear more on this. story, just listen to our Global News. Podcast, click on the link below. But. that's it from this edition of the. Global News Podcast here on YouTube.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for. watching and bye for now.