Eyewitness Inside Venezuelas disaster zone and what does Donald Trump have to do with it

At this time last week, James, didn't imagine we'd be doing this podcast together sitting on roof in Caracas, capital of Venezuela. Yeah. Yeah, it's great to see you, Martha, but it could not be in more difficult, desperate circumstances. It's Martha here. And it's James. We're both in Caracas, side by side, the capital of Venezuela. Last time we were together, Martha, was in New York, the court appearance following the arrest and capture of Nicolas Maduro. We're here now, very difficult country to get into, Venezuela, of course, experiencing very difficult time. Yeah, we've been here almost week now reporting on the aftermath of those two devastating earthquakes that struck just 39 seconds apart. Entire neighborhoods devastated, flattened. Thousands are estimated to have died in this tragedy. Tens of thousands more have been displaced. Yeah, today we'll take you inside what we have seen as two of the first international reporters allowed into Venezuela following the earthquakes. But, because this is Trump 100, we will also answer the bigger question, suppose, how Donald Trump is now deeply involved in what happened here and what happens next. Martha, was in Miami. I'd just been covering Scotland versus Brazil. It was call in the middle of the night, and well, that's never for good news, is it? Yeah, similarly to you, was at the British Consulate. was watching that Scotland game when saw on my phone news alert that an earthquake had happened in Venezuela. At that point, didn't know that there was two earthquakes, and but obviously, pretty quickly it became apparent that this was dire situation. Yeah, we got the same flight, didn't we, from Panama City initially into Venezuela ultimately? We got to Caracas and you were straight out to cover what, the rescue operation? Yeah, think both of us were unsure how the journey was going to go getting into Venezuela. You usually have to have lengthy process to get journalist visas. But they seem to have made an exception this time to let international reporters come in and and shine spotlight on what's happening. We weren't of course able to fly into Caracas itself because that airport sustained heavy damage to the terminal building and to the runways in the earthquake. So we flew into Valencia, which is another city around 3-hour drive away. Pretty hair-raising ride to get here, but as soon as we arrived in Caracas, my team, we split into two separate teams, went to building 10 minutes away from the hotel where we're staying, which had been completely flattened. And pretty dramatic scenes when we arrived there. You know, this apartment building, complete rubble. And just round the corner, there were families waiting for news on their loved ones. spoke to one father whose son was psychologist and he'd been at home watching film at the time of the collapse. The dad knew that because they'd been texting. And lot of people doing similar things, relaxing, celebrating because it was an international day of celebration at the time the earthquake struck. Yeah, happened just after 6:00 p.m., didn't it? Two earthquakes within seconds of each other, 7.2 magnitude and 7.5, the strongest that this country has experienced for for more than century. And that night, Martha, mean, I've seen you reporting frantic search, very busy. And you know, members of the public, relatives, you know, looking for loved ones lost, watching the search. Yeah, an incredibly makeshift operation. It really wasn't clear who was in charge. There were local people showing up with bike helmets, with garden shovels, digging with their bare hands. And that's something we've seen throughout the week, this, you know, lack of really any coordination until the international search crews have arrived. My brief was to head very early the next morning to the state of La Guaira, which was the the hardest hit. And number of areas in that state, particularly. We headed for town, Catia La Mar. And think what was was striking as we made the drive was the silence, actually. Nobody there. All you could see was the devastation. You couldn't hear the earthquake clearly, but swear you heard its roar as we made our way down this main street. And on both sides of the street, just crumpled buildings. town collapsed. Now and again, you saw residents standing, just watching their properties. In absolute shock, in wonderment. Any other time, it is somewhere where people go from Caracas for the weekend. And it's like any other seaside town. Until you look inwards. And by the shore, remember these, you know, multi-story apartments. Any other time, luxury apartments. And it was the sound, actually, that that got me first. The the shouting, screaming into the rubble of people who were looking for their loved ones lost. And, you know, hear hear that shouting today. William, Maria, Christopher, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandmothers. You know, with their bare hands scraping stones away, looking into the darkness, shouting, looking for any sign that there were people alive underneath the rubble. And of course, it was helpless task, and you saw You saw the exhaustion, the desperation on their face, but you know, suppose the question is when do you stop looking for your loved ones? There There was one group There was actually one apartment block still intact, damaged, but there was one group started shouting, pointing to window four or five levels up, and shouting name, telling us there was somebody there, they'd seen movement. And of course, we looked where they were pointing for for what must have been 10, 15 minutes. We didn't see any sign, but you know, for me, that was just That just reflected the desperation of people to to find anybody alive. And of course, and you touched on it, Martha, we saw no official help, and that was frustrating. These desperate people, they were left to fend for themselves, to search for themselves. You know, they were They were telling us, "Máquina, máquina." They wanted the machinery, but there was none coming. Resources clearly were stretched, and desperate people were being left to their own devices. Yeah, think the desperation is the key emotion here, desperation and anger at the authorities for not doing more, and this fury really at the lack of machinery that's available. And even when you do see the diggers, sometimes they're idling at the side of of the rubble because they don't have enough fuel. Imagine being in country with huge, endless oil fields, and they're in the middle of natural disaster, and they don't have enough petrol to run the very few diggers that are actually on the ground in La Guaira state. You know, that is just mind-boggling to me, and the fact that this search didn't start sooner because there clearly were lots of people still alive in the rubble. was speaking to one woman outside set of apartment buildings that are known here colloquially as Los Cocos. So, they were built by Hugo Chavez as part of the socialist revolution and four of the six buildings came down. Potentially thousands of people inside. overall, we think they had about 5,000 people living there. And that's probably the biggest single wreckage site of this disaster. And one woman who saw there the other day, she was looking for her sister and her nephews. And she said obviously the earthquake happened at 6:00 p.m. She finally got there to Los Cocos at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. She said it was ghost town. There was no one there. It was families waiting for news, but no no one digging. spoke to another woman, same apartment building, Los Cocos. she has video on her phone of her niece in the rubble, in the room that she was in at the time of the collapse. this video, saw the timestamp, 22 minutes after the earthquake happened. She was in pretty good physical health. She hadn't been that badly injured by the initial collapse. This video, she says, "Don't worry, we're here. I'm with my mom. We're okay. Tell everyone we're going to be okay. We're going to get out. We're going to get out. Truly believe us, we're going to get out." Anyway, couple of days after that video was sent, they found her charred body inside that building. So, it's this idea that that there were people there to be rescued. And we know there were people there to be rescued in that specific building because saw it, you know, 3 days after the disaster, this astonishing story of survival, an an 11-year-old boy who was pulled from the rubble by Mexican search team. Again, in pretty good physical condition. I've now seen video of him in hospital as well where he's talking to his dad on FaceTime. His dad's living in exile in Spain and just the anger of the the families who had people in that particular apartment building, you know, who say if they'd have gone in sooner, maybe we'd have rescued tens, potentially hundreds hundreds more people. Yeah, La Guaira, we've both been back over the course of few days, Martha, and that first time that went, people left to their own devices. Two days, three days later when we returned, still saw no sign of official searches, official help. And in amongst it all, you know, are these individuals you've spoken about and the people you came across. remember Anthony Oropez we met him at the gate of his house, four-story apartment block razed to the ground, and he showed us picture of his wife and three teenage children. Isabela, Maria Fernanda Sarah Maria Jose, mi hijo, Jose Alejandro. Named all three, he said, "They're in there. believe they are alive. We need heavy lifting gear." Every time there was traffic at the end of the street, he would break off our chat and run shouting to them to try to summon them in towards his apartment just to lift the the concrete. We returned couple of days later and no sign of Anthony. Saw the building and neighbor said, "Look, they've all been found and they're all dead." So, these are people at their absolute end. How did you cope with something like that? Losing absolutely everything, your family, your building. We tried to find Anthony. We wanted to just find out to tie up his story. We went actually to what is makeshift morgue. And you know, bearing in mind you've already got people angry, frustrated, absolutely strung out. There were people queuing up. This is where they go to identify the dead and actually to retrieve their remains. There It There were cars parked up, funeral directors amongst them, waiting to transport the remains of people who died, but they wanted money first. And so there was gathering of people who couldn't afford to bury their dead. It cost more than 300 pounds, and in this country the average monthly salary is around half that. So you know, you had people who could see their relatives, but who couldn't touch them, couldn't get them out, cuz they couldn't afford it. So you know, it's piling agony upon agony. think that's it, it's the lack of dignity in death as well. In La Guaira, it's hellscape, isn't it? You know, you walk in and there's this overwhelming stench of death, and there are quite literally at the side of buildings bodies piled. One man we spoke to, he'd retrieved the body of his daughter and his 11-month-old there, wrapped in sheets, and he's asking me if can help take the bodies away. You know, that is the lack of of help from the the Venezuelan authorities on the ground. He's not only had to dig his own family out of the rubble, he now doesn't know what to do with their bodies. And there are diggers coming past, there are cars coming past, there are people walking past, almost tripping over the bodies of his family members. It's just horror you can barely describe in words. Yeah. And the question is, where are the authorities? Where is the help in all of this? Where are the politicians? We've seen them with Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, who stepped in following the capture of Maduro. She, interestingly, had sort of photo call, went to place in Caracas where there was rescue recovery operation. Interestingly, was booed and jeered by local people who turned up, asking, you know, why did this happen? Where is the help? You wouldn't have got that in Venezuela this time last year, when the Maduro regime had an iron grip on the population here, but people are finding their voice because of the political change. They're finding their voice because of the desperate events of the past week. And that's interesting. mean, we're in country you know, which has been communist regime, the Chavez regime, the Maduro regime after that. You know, poor country, and not helped by US sanctions, but the infrastructure, but there's been lack of investment, lack of proper infrastructure. there was, of course, in 1999, the mudslides that killed something like 30,000 people. Many of the properties that were rebuilt, actually, they're the properties that have come down. So, serious questions about infrastructure and the buildings, about the response, of course, but there is this wider political story, isn't there? And of course, Donald Trump is central character in that. Yeah, think what it's highlighted is what decades of socialist rule have done to this country, and it's exposed the the frailties, the economic crisis, and you know, for instance, the cement industry, nationalized under socialist rule, and had one guy who was picking up outside the Los Cocos apartment building, the one mentioned before, picking up Styrofoam. You know, that building was made, much of it, with Styrofoam, and they were saying it was it was originally built 13 years ago. Every single earthquake they've had since has exposed faults in the building, you know, one woman was speaking to said there was big cracks down the walls, but nothing was done to repair them, and ultimately, you saw these massive apartment blocks coming down in in the earthquake. So, think it it's aided on that, and then it it shone spotlight on Donald Trump, and the fact that, obviously, they moved in in this dramatic operation, January the 3rd, to take Nicholas Maduro. Well, when this country is in time of such dire need, would the US president step up? That's what everyone was asking. Yeah, and we have seen the American response, haven't we? As we speak, the Americans are channeling several hundred million. mean, the cost of recovery clearly is going to be far beyond that. There are US troops, US military on the ground. We've seen the USS Fort Lauderdale. So, there is American input. Questions around the extent of that. But, the Americans are here. And of course, for Donald Trump who has Delcy Rodríguez as his placewoman, you know, very much controlling the oil industry, pulling the political strings. This situation, this desperate situation is test of Donald Trump's commitment to Venezuela and the Venezuelan people. For all the grand talk of building the country towards free elections, you know, that three-phase plan, stabilization, recovery, transition. That's all great talk, but this is the acid test for many people. And we got sense of that. Actually, we you know, talking about Venezuelans now speaking out. We went to mass, Sunday mass. This country is 90% and more Catholic. Interestingly, the church was damaged. One of the steeples had cracked. So, the mass had to take place in the town square. We were filming. Actually, there was mural of Nicholas Maduro. We're going to film that while the mass was going on. We decided not to. We didn't want to spook anybody. But, interestingly, they're almost queuing up to to give us their their view on what was going on. Speaking about Trump, one man said, "Look, I'm not We're not necessarily happy with the way he has responded." He reckoned that the Americans hadn't stepped up quickly enough. And others were talking about, you know, not enough response locally from the Venezuelan government. One man said, "Look, this is reflection of the fact that repression and persecution doesn't work for us." But, don't know about you, Martha, but, you know, people speak to who know more about their country than do, they actually quite like the idea of Trump. He's presented them with an opportunity. There's Speaking to teacher, teaches young kids, and he said, "The thing about the young kids in class is that they tell you stuff that's being said in their houses that they're not supposed to." So, you get reflection of the the public mood. And the parents at all, you know, they all see Trump as as hope. Certainly certainly change from regime that just simply didn't work for them or this country. Yeah, think also because the Venezuelan local response to this disaster has been so dire, it's actually made the US, Donald Trump, the Americans look quite good in comparison. think lot of people seeing our faces, they think that we're American reporters. And I've had people coming up to me saying, "Thank you. Thank you for all that you're doing." cuz they think that we're the US. And was there in La Guaira one evening, and there was team of searchers from Fairfax County, Virginia, responders search and rescue team with dogs sniffing for signs of life. And people saw that, and they thought, "Great, they've brought actual specialist search resources to look for their family." And think in way that will, you know, do Donald Trump lot of good even though, for me, I'm thinking there should be more support from the US given what they did to Venezuela back in in January. If was Venezuelan, would like to see larger US search presence on the ground. Yeah, think if was Venezuelan and I'd seen the billions of dollars worth of oil revenue that the US is now getting from Venezuela because they're effectively an economic protectorate of the country, would want to see more search and rescue teams on the ground. Yeah, it is important. It is important in the immediate term, but also politically in the long term, isn't it? The input of the United States and the extent to which it can steer the direction of this country. Looking around for me, it wouldn't take much for it to fall back into its old ways. You look around and mean the military are everywhere, the guys with guns and variety of uniforms, checkpoints everywhere you look. Still, you know, big portraits of Nicolas Maduro and wife. Reminds me actually of Saddam's Iraq, Gaddafi's Libya. So, think for Donald Trump who wants to exert control over this place and its people, it's it's test. It's test that people who want change here don't want him to fail. Speaking of the military, we're going to have to quickly wrap up recording this podcast cuz our producer Gabriel has just told us that the government have been in touch. They've spotted us on the roof of our hotel and they don't want us doing this broadcast. Well, Martha, we will not be gagged. Should we give our closing thoughts on what we've seen? think, Martha, we in the past few days we have witnessed the extremes of tragedy, suffering, and loss, haven't we? failure to cope with disaster on this scale. People left, abandoned, helpless. You know, people somehow left to cope with the losing everything, somehow having to rebuild, move forward. Whole families lost and mean, trauma doesn't even begin to describe it. It really doesn't. Just what they're going through, cannot even conceive of. but also just wanted to say how wonderful, and this sounds like cliché, but how wonderful the people here have been. You're going to these disaster zones where people are digging with their bare hands for that for their kids and they're offering you, me and you, water, crisps, biscuits, and things. It is just staggering the the generosity, to be quite honest, and the willingness to share their stories. Yeah. Hear, hear. Thanks for watching and for listening. Do send us your comments and questions to the usual place Trump 100 at sky.uk. Speak to you soon. Thank you. See you soon.