Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Re­porter

As the toll of deaths and in­juries in Venezuela con­tin­ues ris­ing af­ter Wednes­day's twin "mon­ster" earth­quakes, Cari­com and re­gion­al coun­tries - in­clud­ing T&T - have ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Venezuela, of­fers of as­sis­tance and sol­i­dar­i­ty.

This, fol­low­ing Wednes­day's earth­quakes mea­sur­ing mag­ni­tudes of 7.2 and 7.5, which were de­scribed as the strongest to hit Venezuela in 126 years.

The death toll up to yes­ter­day af­ter­noon was at least 188 (up from 164 ini­tial­ly), with 1,600 in­jured (up from 1,000) - and the fig­ure was ex­pect­ed to rise.

Hard­est hit was the north­ern coastal state of La Guaira (which is 20 miles north of cap­i­tal Cara­cas), where 250 build­ings were re­port­ed dam­aged or lost.

Me­dia re­ports de­tailed as­sis­tance by South Amer­i­can coun­tries, Cu­ba, the US, Mex­i­co, Iran, France, Spain, Ger­many, Switzer­land, Hol­land and the Czech Re­pub­lic; of­fers from Chi­na and con­do­lences from Japan, Italy, Ukraine and Rus­sia.

Yes­ter­day, the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) ex­pressed deep con­do­lences over the trag­ic loss of life in Venezuela, the grow­ing num­ber of in­juries and ex­ten­sive dam­age to in­fra­struc­ture and homes.

Cari­com added, "We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Venezuela dur­ing this time of im­mense grief and of­fer prayers for a swift re­cov­ery to the in­jured and dis­placed. Cari­com com­mends the tire­less ef­forts of the emer­gency per­son­nel, first re­spon­ders, and cit­i­zens work­ing un­der chal­leng­ing con­di­tions to res­cue sur­vivors and pro­vide vi­tal as­sis­tance.

"Cari­com wish­es the peo­ple of Venezuela strength and re­silience as they nav­i­gate this tragedy and be­gin the dif­fi­cult process of re­cov­ery and re­con­struc­tion."

The T&T Gov­ern­ment, im­me­di­ate­ly on Wednes­day night, ex­pressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with Venezuela, stand­ing "pre­pared to pro­vide any re­quest­ed sup­port and as­sis­tance to the Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties, where pos­si­ble."

Yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, ex­tend­ing T&T's heart­felt sym­pa­thy, pledged sup­port, say­ing the Gov­ern­ment stands ready to pro­vide hu­man­i­tar­i­an as­sis­tance.

“Our thoughts, prayers, and sol­i­dar­i­ty are with all those af­fect­ed. We stand ready to as­sist in what­ev­er hu­man­i­tar­i­an way we can dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. We wish the peo­ple of Venezuela safe­ty, strength, and a swift re­cov­ery as they nav­i­gate the af­ter­math of this nat­ur­al dis­as­ter."

Re­gion­al lead­ers: We're neigh­bours

ST LU­CIA'S PRIME MIN­IS­TER PHILLIP J PIERRE (Cari­com chair­man):

"At this dif­fi­cult time, the peo­ple of St Lu­cia stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Venezuela as they mourn the lives lost, care for the in­jured, and be­gin the chal­leng­ing process of re­cov­ery and re­build­ing."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones, those who have been dis­placed, and all com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by this tragedy."

GUYANA PRES­I­DENT IR­FAAN ALI:

"As neigh­bours, we are deeply sad­dened by the scale, mag­ni­tude, and de­struc­tion caused by the two pow­er­ful back-to-back earth­quakes that struck Cara­cas and so far, claim­ing dozens of lives and in­jur­ing hun­dreds. We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Venezuela.

"As neigh­bours, we are ready to of­fer as­sis­tance with­in our ca­pac­i­ty. Our love, prayers, and thoughts are with the fam­i­lies of those af­fect­ed and the peo­ple of Venezuela."

BAR­BA­DOS PRIME MIN­IS­TER MIA MOT­T­LEY said she'd spo­ken on Wednes­day night with act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez to con­vey the deep­est con­do­lences of Bar­ba­dos's Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple, "...Af­ter the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quakes that have tak­en lives, shak­en com­mu­ni­ties and left so many fam­i­lies in an­guish.

"Some will call what hap­pened an act of God. What hap­pens next must be acts of hu­man­i­ty, acts of kind­ness, acts of sol­i­dar­i­ty, acts of courage, and acts of prac­ti­cal love. Venezuela is our neigh­bour, and in this Caribbean fam­i­ly, pain does not stop at a bor­der. Bar­ba­dos stands ready to as­sist in what­ev­er way we can.

"To every fam­i­ly griev­ing, to those wait­ing for word of loved ones, and to the first re­spon­ders work­ing through fear and ex­haus­tion, please know that you're not alone. Bar­ba­dos stands with you in prayer, in com­pas­sion and in re­solve."

ST VIN­CENT PRIME MIN­IS­TER DR GOD­WIN FRI­DAY: "The thoughts of every Vin­cent­ian are with Venezuela. We un­der­stand this dev­as­ta­tion. We know what it means to see home lost, fam­i­lies dis­placed and com­mu­ni­ties left to re­build. Venezuela has al­ways been there for us. To­day, we re­turn that friend­ship with­out hes­i­ta­tion. To those who have lost loved ones and to all those af­fect­ed, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines stands with you."

DO­MINI­CA's PRIME MIN­IS­TER ROO­SEVELT SKER­RIT:

"I'm sad­dened by the re­ports of de­struc­tion and loss of life ... The gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Do­mini­ca ex­tend sin­cere con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies af­fect­ed and ex­press our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple of Venezuela dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. Venezuela is our neigh­bour and friend, we stand ready to pro­vide sup­port where pos­si­ble.

"We al­so ac­knowl­edge the ef­forts of the emer­gency per­son­nel re­spond­ing to this tragedy and wish the na­tion courage and strength in the days ahead."

Ja­maica, ex­tend­ing con­do­lences, said its Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple were pro­found­ly sad­dened.

“As a Caribbean na­tion that knows well the sud­den­ness with which nat­ur­al dis­as­ter can vis­it our re­gion, Ja­maica stands in full sol­i­dar­i­ty with Venezuela in this hour of grief and re­cov­ery ... Ja­maica stands ready to sup­port the re­lief and re­cov­ery ef­fort in what­ev­er way it can. Our hearts are with the fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones, with the in­jured, and with the many still search­ing for those trapped be­neath the rub­ble.”

Yes­ter­day, Pres­i­dent Ro­driguez re­spond­ed on the of­fers of as­sis­tance, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Guyana's Ali.