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The death toll in Venezuela is steadily rising, even as authorities continue the search for the tens of thousands who remain missing. However Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, Alvaro Sanchez Cordero, says the people will overcome. Rynessa Cutting has more from the MSJ Tuesday Talk.
Transcript
00:00The United Nations has issued a call for scaled-up support for Venezuela's earthquake recovery as the death toll hit
00:08over 3,500 and counting.
00:11That at the moment, unfortunately, the number of dead people is 3,535 with 6,462 people who have been
00:25saved, recovered from the robes alive.
00:30By the way, of the 6,462 people recovered alive, just the first day, 2,407 were recovered on the
00:41first day, the 24th going into the 25th of June.
00:45This is just to, you know, to exemplify that there was an immediate response on, like, as you said, some
00:55media are trying to, you know, say otherwise.
01:01The number of people wounded is 16,740.
01:08The displaced people, 17,854.
01:13Ambassador to TNT, Alvaro Sanchez Cordero, reports significant infrastructural damage with roughly 856 buildings affected at last count.
01:26Up to the moment, a total of 6,000 buildings have been inspected, of which, of those 6,000, 70
01:34% of them, the result of those analyses is that people can actually come back and live with them.
01:41And 15,000 buildings, houses, homes, still need to go through inspection.
01:49And for that, of course, President Darcy Rodriguez has called even for international assistance in order to make sure that
01:55that type of inspections and assessments go through as quickly as possible.
02:01Because, of course, housing is of utmost priority.
02:06However, Ambassador Cordero notes, the people of Venezuela are no strangers to challenges.
02:13He says the country will overcome.
02:16So many difficulties that we have been going through, which is that this is just another test.
02:21But just like Bolivar said, we will overcome, we will continue.
02:24But the key here, just like then, is unity.
02:27It's not to get into despair or to fall into this type of traps that are put us.
02:35On Tuesday, U.S. search and rescue teams left Venezuela.
02:39However, the U.S. Department of State reports that the Trump administration continues to coordinate, quote,
02:46a massive humanitarian response, with the United States' total financial commitment amounting to more than $386 million.
02:56However, one Venezuelan political commentator is of the view that the United States could do much more.
03:02The disastrous nature of it, that always has a historical component.
03:07And the main historical component I want to point to is the sanctions.
03:10This is a country that's been under, since for something like 12 years, it's been under more years, more like
03:1715 years,
03:18under very severe sanctions from the United States.
03:22So this hinders, on the one hand, it simply weakens the infrastructure.
03:26You know, buildings are not what they would be.
03:28Some buildings are not what they would be.
03:30It weakens the health system, and it weakens the emergency response capacity.
03:36I completely, I totally coincide with what Ambassador Sanchez said is that the response was very good and very immediate.
03:43But one has to think about the historical situation.
03:45So that's why it becomes all the more absurd when a country like the United States says it's going to
03:50help,
03:51and it sends Marines to help, but what it should do is eliminate the sanctions, eliminate the blockade.
03:59It should also free Venezuelan assets.
04:02Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:04Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:07Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:07Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:08Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:09Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:09Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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