Old buildings and substandard construction have left Venezuela vulnerable to earthquakes

Old buildings, substandard construction and geography have left many neighborhoods in Venezuela vulnerable to powerful earthquakes like the one that struck the country this week.

Engineers and other experts said that the successive earthquakes that occurred on Wednesday were among the strongest to have struck the country in more than a century, flattening buildings and leaving more than 900 dead, and the number is expected to rise. Videos and satellite images from the disaster area reviewed by The Associated Press reveal the collapse of dozens of multi-story buildings.

Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab program analyzed satellite images of Catia la Mar in La Guaira state, one of the hardest-hit cities along the Caribbean coast. Using artificial intelligence-based damage assessment models, Microsoft determined that about a third of the city’s nearly 30,000 buildings were damaged.

Among the factors that left many of the structures vulnerable: Some housing complexes in northern Venezuela were built quickly during the recent oil boom, and builders may not have adhered to best practices that mitigate the risks of dangerous seismic activity, according to experts.

Engineers said older housing constructed in the 1950s and 1960s — before modern seismic standards were adopted — may not have been retrofitted and retrofitted to withstand such violent tremors. Experts said that many buildings were built on soft geography and soil, which doubles the risk of earthquakes.

Residents and rescue workers search through rubble two days after an earthquake in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Pablo Arraez)

Residents and rescue workers search through rubble two days after an earthquake in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Pablo Arraez)

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A combination of soft soil, tall towers and old concrete structures contributed to widespread damage, especially when buildings collapsed or collapsed floor by floor, said David Cook, a California structural engineer and former head of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

“They don’t have the more modern rebar connections that we put in these types of buildings today,” Cook said.

Since the 1970s, engineers have known that concrete buildings are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, and have sought to reinforce new construction with steel. While many rich countries have forced property owners to retrofit or demolish dangerous buildings, many poor or middle-income countries have lagged behind in implementing improvements even as they face more pressing problems.

“Some of the more developed countries like Japan, New Zealand and the United States have made these changes, but some others have not,” Cook said. “It’s a very typical type of construction around the world.”

“Soft stories” and soft soil played a role

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Other experts noted that a number of the buildings that collapsed also had non-structural walls made up of heavy brick, or had “soft stories” whose ground floors consisted of garages or similar open spaces. They said such construction increases the risk of collapse.

“Soft stories are a big problem everywhere in the world,” said Eduardo Miranda, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. “In Venezuela, it’s particularly prevalent, and if you combine the softer soil with the soft story, buildings can collapse.”

Venezuelan police search for survivors among the rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026, two days after a double earthquake struck the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cobios)

Venezuelan police search for survivors among the rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026, two days after a double earthquake struck the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cobios)

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A man retrieves items from rubble two days after earthquakes struck in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubios)

A man retrieves items from rubble two days after earthquakes struck in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubios)

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Marcos Ferreira, a geophysicist and researcher with Brazil’s Geological Survey, said the devastation in Venezuela was exacerbated by successive earthquakes, known as double quakes. A similar incident occurred in Türkiye and Syria in 2023, killing nearly 60,000 people.

“It’s like I’m screaming and then someone starts screaming too,” Ferreira said. “This increases vibration and increases potential risks.”

Newer buildings also collapsed

Venezuelan government officials took steps in the wake of the deadly 1967 earthquake to update building codes. But it is unclear how many buildings have been retrofitted and modernized to comply with these rules.

In late 1999, during former President Hugo Chavez’s first year in office, floods and landslides destroyed housing, including in coastal northern Venezuela. Juan Carlos Vilma, a Venezuelan civil engineer and head of academic affairs at the School of Civil Engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University in Valparaiso, Chile, said the government has embarked on a construction operation to replace demolished buildings and house many displaced people.

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Some of the newer buildings appear to have collapsed as well.

“The thing that leaves me confused is the fact that among the collapsed buildings, more than one was designed and built recently according to current standards,” Vilma said. “We need to embark on a process not only of reconstruction, but also of reviewing the established standards, because something may have gone wrong in our engineering processes as well.”

Venezuelan police search for survivors among the rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026, two days after a double earthquake struck the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cobios)

Venezuelan police search for survivors among the rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026, two days after a double earthquake struck the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cobios)

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AP writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

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