Venezuelans' anger over slow earthquake response

**Alex Ritson** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 15h GMT on Monday 29th June, these are our main stories. The Venezuelan earthquake death toll climbs as anger grows over the slow response by the authorities. The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo worsens, with 47 new infections and 12 deaths on Saturday alone. Britain's Prime Minister in waiting, Andy Burnham, sets out his plans for running the UK.
Also in this podcast…

**Cathy Luver** (0:37)
The main fear is that we will see towns and villages which are half empty. If only half the population is left in a village, the infrastructure suffers.

**Alex Ritson** (0:45)
Germany's population crisis in the East.
We begin in Venezuela, where more international support has been pledged for disaster response efforts. In the wake of last week's massive earthquakes, the Netherlands says it's sending a naval vessel to the country with emergency supplies, while China has promised almost $15 million in assistance. Almost 1,500 people are now known to have died, and tens of thousands more are still believed to be missing. While international rescue teams are undertaking large-scale searches for survivors with equipment and sniffer dogs, anger has been growing against Venezuela's government for what people say is a lack of action. Our senior international correspondent, Orla Guerin, is in a northern coastal town which has badly hit.

**Orla Guerin** (1:35)
Daybreak in Catia Lamar, the heart of the disaster zone. But where is the response? We reached the area easily. State agencies seemed in no rush. Inside a shredded building, a faithful friend still waits, relatives looking on. These women know their sister is under the rubble.
For the newly homeless, time to face another day.
Wilmer lost eight of his loved ones. Most are still entombed by their homes.

**Wilmer** (2:15)
We have only recovered three. This is what hurts the most, that we won't have the chance to give them a proper burial as they deserve.
On top of everything, the government decided to close the streets, making it harder to bring help. Yesterday we waited from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get a permission to come here. We wasted hours.

**Orla Guerin** (2:40)
We waited from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Local people are here waiting as they have been for days and for nights, hoping that the bodies of their loved ones will be found. On top of this mound of rubble, there are some more residents from the area. One man has located the body of his father beneath all of that crushed wreckage, but he has no way, nothing except his own hands, to try to recover the body. What's really striking here is not just the scale of the destruction, but the complete lack of any large-scale organized official assistance. There's no sign of the state here. People tell us they've gone through the pain of losing their loved ones, and now they have to try to rescue them themselves. And in the midst of all this, a new-born baby boy, Gael Garcia, tended by his grandmother, Lady, on a mattress in the dirt. His mum, Eliana, delivered him on the street 11 hours after the quake.
Lady has had no word from her other daughter, Angelus, and her three children.
And nearby, 79-year-old Yvonne gives us a warm welcome as she waits patiently for help to come. How do you think about what the government has done or failed to do since all of this happened?

**Katie Watson** (4:16)
Listen to me. I don't like to make comments that I know might have consequences later.

**SPEAKER_7** (4:22)
I survived and I am still here, all by the will of God.

**Katie Watson** (4:26)
But I am surprised that our governor hasn't shown his face around here.

**Cathy Luver** (4:31)
It's been five days now.

**Orla Guerin** (4:38)
This afternoon, a few members of Venezuela's National Guard appeared with precious little help.
But for this young boy, help came in time today. Rescue workers gently carrying his weakened body, prized from under the ground. Recovered with him, his father. The two had been buried alive since Thursday. These scenes will bring hope to many desperate families here. But miracles are few.

**Alex Ritson** (5:15)
Orla Guerin, the BBC's world grant is in Caracas, and told me about wider search and rescue efforts.

**SPEAKER_7** (5:22)
It's hard to get a complete picture because, you know, it's so many states along that northern coastline. But what I can say is in Caracas, the neighbourhoods that have been damaged are in very, very poor state. There are buildings down to the tune of about 150 across the capital. But it's also the degree to which those that haven't been brought down completely have been so cracked and damaged that they're going to be uninhabitable. And then you think about places like where I've been over the weekend, Catea la Mar and La Guaida state, where the devastation is genuinely hard to describe. You walk down certain streets or you drive down certain parts of the town and there are more buildings completely collapsed than they are still standing. And there are teams working on them. But then you realize they are not necessarily official rescuers or teams sent from abroad. They are just neighbours with pickaxes and hands. I spoke to one man who was a mechanic from Kanakas and figured he could help, so got on a motorbike and head his way down there. So that's the sort of picture of what's going on. And people are well aware that they are probably basically looking to pull out bodies at this stage rather than find any more survivors.