The figures for the official death in Venezuela’s earthquake will, unfortunately, take time to catch up with the grim reality. The two quakes, – 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale– came in quick succession last Wednesday, a rare “doublet”, at a particularly dangerous shallow depth, and were the result of the Caribbean tectonic plate grinding against the South American one. There are reports that tens of thousands remain missing. In Catia La Mar, a densely populated beach town in La Guaira state, 28 kilometres from Caracas, at least 100 buildings went down, ten-storey apartment blocks, constructed of brittle concrete inadequately reinforced by steel, collapsed floor by floor.The earthquakes come nearly six months after Nicolás Maduro, then Venezuela’s authoritarian president, was abducted in a night-time raid by US special forces. Since then, under strict supervision from Washington, acting president Delcy Rodríguez, his former deputy, has struggled to “reform” the economy – essentially returning control of oil to US companies – and the disintegrating state apparatus. The power grid, water supply and health system were already under strain from years of neglect and underinvestment. Venezuela has seen the deepest drop in GDP per capita anywhere in the world since 2013, and Rodriguez revealed only days ago plans to negotiate a rescheduling of a record $240 billion debt pile, which ballooned under Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chávez. State coffers are largely depleted. Such realities compound the dire effects of the vast natural forces unleashed on the country which has for some years been a sanctioned pariah unable to turn, as it must now, to international neighbours for support. To their credit. despite bitter, broken relationships those neighbours are responding. International rescue teams have arrived from the region and from further afield. Following the recent military action, the US needs to be at the front of the queue in offering assistance.e.