Venezuela Earthquake Aftermath and Government Response

One week after a pair of powerful earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela,

it seems the collective mood in that country is beginning to shift.

We have seen civilians and volunteers of all types

trying to save people trapped underneath the rubble,

and they've been using their bare hands and shovels and pickaxes,

with little assistance from the authorities.

Food and aid supplies have been delayed,

and the lack of heavy machinery

has made it extremely difficult to find survivors.

I think it's only natural that people are beginning to ask

a series of pretty pointed questions,

like, was the government adequately prepared for something like this?

Why did it respond slowly?

And where are the diggers?

The acting president, Delcy Rodriguez,

has had to face some of these criticisms at a press conference,

and I can tell you, she didn't like it one bit.

The workers in the laboratories,

well, they all went down to the guaira to cause chaos,

to prevent the search and rescue work.

While we have seen her on state television

meeting officials and members of the military,

she doesn't like the way the media has covered the disaster,

accusing them of creating stories in propaganda labs.

She says journalists are trying to make the situation look more chaotic than it really is.

There are no measures to deploy all the efforts of the public, private, international and national.

The consequences of this calamity are clearly enormous.

While the official death toll remains relatively low, the UN is flying in 10,000 body bags

and 38,000 names have been registered on a missing person's website.

Yet the acting president seems like she's ready to move on.

But it won't be easy. Venezuela is poor and it's deeply divided.

And this double earthquake makes a bad situation even worse.