The funeral processions in Las Tejerías began this Tuesday. About 31 urns were carried on shoulders and in cars in a caravan to the cemetery. People began burying their dead after the landslide that devastated this city in central Aragua state on Saturday. From the first 24 identified, the official figure of the ongoing tragedy left by the rains in Venezuela rose to 39. Among the bodies recently found are five minors, including three children aged 1 and 2, another 7 and a 17 -year-old teenager. At least 56 people are still missing. “We are reaching almost a hundred deaths from this tragedy,” said Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday.
The rescue work continues. Four bodies were found this Tuesday in the Tuy River, where some of the Las Tejerías streams flow, dammed by the weekend’s downpours, dragging with them sediment, vehicles, rocks and huge trees. The governor of the neighboring state of Miranda, Héctor Rodríguez, confirmed the recovery of the bodies and assured that they could be some of those who disappeared in Las Tejerías, where around 50,000 people live, 67 kilometers from Caracas. The community is at the center of what geologists call an alluvial fan, so the displacement of large sediment flows, which carry away what they get in their way like lava, can be cyclical. Neighbors have denounced that the ravine that cuts through the city had dragged houses with it at least 10 days earlier, but the vulnerable areas, including a devastated industrial area, were not evacuated.
This Tuesday, residents of Las Tejerías used shovels to remove mud from their home after this weekend’s flooding.GABY ORAA (Portal)
The tragedy has mobilized Venezuelans and hits a country already fragile after several years of suffering a humanitarian emergency caused by the political, economic and social crisis during the hardest years of Chavismo. Several collection points for clothing, household goods and food have been set up in Caracas for more than 10,000 families, including those affected by power and water cuts during the disaster and those who lost their homes. The Platform for Humanitarian Response of the NGOs that have been deployed for these tasks for years, along with some United Nations agencies, said in a statement that “given the humanitarian needs that have arisen and given the forecasts of natural threats yet to be developed, “they could Scale response and service delivery capabilities in vulnerable areas.
The effects of this intense rainy season, compounded by the formation of tropical waves in the Caribbean, have accumulated and continue to wreak havoc in different parts of the country. Rises in the east and west have left more casualties in recent weeks, flooding productive acres, collapsed bridges, landslides and another 40 deaths, not counting Las Tejerías. A section of the highway connecting the capital to the country’s main airport was also undermined, although traffic was not disrupted. The affiliation includes 14 states and 41 municipalities.
Maduro visited Las Tejerías on Monday afternoon and declared a three-day national mourning. This is an unusual mobilization by the President, who usually does not leave Miraflores for fear of assassination. Using a megaphone, he addressed the community and assured them that in two months they would have new houses and the whole city would be rebuilt. “I warned on a public broadcast 10 days ago that I am very concerned about how the soil is becoming saturated with water and we have ordered a survey of all nearby mountains,” the Chavista leader said, assuring that the situation “serious” and that “it rained three times as much as in any other year”.
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Despite the seriousness of the situation, media coverage in the Las Tejerías area was limited. Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos urged reporters “not to get in each other’s way” and assured that the state media, which had full access, guaranteed the right to information. Social networks were the first channels to hear about what was happening, mainly from reports by local journalists. The weather services have reported that a new tropical wave has begun to form, like the one that became Hurricane Julia last week and left severe consequences in Venezuela. The season is not over yet.
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