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The night of June 24, 2026, has been recorded as a dark chapter in the history of Venezuela, which has pushed the country back decades. The first powerful earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, struck near San Felipe, the capital of Yaracuy province, at around 10 p.m. People could not even recover from this terrible shock that just 40 seconds later, a second and even more devastating earthquake of 7.5 magnitude occurred near Yumare city. The epicenter of these two consecutive earthquakes was about 284 to 293 kilometers west of the capital Caracas. These tremors have turned the whole of Venezuela into a heap of debris. In the capital Caracas, several skyscrapers and a major bank building collapsed like a deck of cards. The country’s main Simón Bolivar International Airport has been heavily damaged, due to which all flights had to be cancelled. Apart from this, news of large-scale devastation is also coming from states like Trujillo, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda and La Guerra. According to the initial and scary warning of the US Geological Survey (USGS), 10 thousand to 1 lakh people are expected to die in this disaster. But the loss of human lives is not the only crisis facing Venezuela. For this country which has been facing severe economic crisis for years, this earthquake is such a ‘third shock’, from which it may take decades for the country to come out. The world’s largest oil reserves, yet the country is poor. The biggest paradox of Venezuela is that it has 303 billion barrels of oil reserves, which is the largest in the world and about five times more than the total oil reserves of America. Despite this, due to wrong policies and restrictions the country’s economy is completely on ventilator. Historic decline in GDP: Venezuela’s GDP has recorded a historic decline of about 80% between 2013 and 2025, which is worse than the crisis that occurred during the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Production stalled: The country which used to produce 35 lakh barrels of oil every day in 1998, saw its production fall to just 3.92 lakh barrels per day by 2020. Record breaking inflation: In the year 2025, the inflation rate in Venezuela crossed 475%, which was the highest in the world. The average monthly income of a common man here is only between 100 to 300 dollars. According to the United Nations (UN), by the year 2025, one-third of the country’s population (about 80 lakh people) would be completely dependent on humanitarian aid. Hopes had returned due to political change, but fate had something else in store. This year in January 2026, a huge political U-turn took place in Venezuela. After former President Nicolas Maduro was arrested by the US military on January 3, the country was handed over to Vice President Delsey Rodriguez as acting president. Rodriguez implemented stringent economic reforms, ending the monopoly of state oil company PDVSA and opening the door to foreign investment. New oil agreements were signed with global companies like Chevron of America, Repsol of Spain and Eni of Italy, due to which the country’s oil production again increased to beyond 1 million barrels per day. Economists fully expected that Venezuela would register an excellent GDP growth of 12.1% in the year 2026. But this terrible earthquake has dashed all these hopes. Fear of loss of 100 billion dollars: The devastation is equivalent to the economy. According to initial estimates of USGS’s PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response) system, this earthquake could cause economic loss to Venezuela ranging from 10 billion dollars to more than 100 billion dollars, the probability of which is up to 39%. This devastating amount is equivalent to the size of Venezuela’s total current economy. The biggest challenge is that the country does not have even a penny for reconstruction. Venezuela is already burdened with a huge foreign debt of $170 billion. Additionally, much of the revenue from oil sales is held in US-supervised escrow accounts due to legal complications to prevent lenders from seizing them. In such a situation, the caretaker government has very limited financial resources for relief work. Experts’ biggest concern: Danger of fire in oil refineries and gas lines According to Dr. Lucy Jones, a renowned seismologist at Caltech, collapse of buildings is not the only danger after such major earthquakes. The real disaster begins when main gas pipelines laid underground and electrical grids break, causing massive fires throughout the city. Since earthquakes also break water supply lines, it becomes impossible for fire departments to control the fire. Additionally, Venezuela’s health system (hospitals and medicines) is already in a state of disrepair, making treating thousands of injured people a major challenge. If the country’s oil refineries and oil infrastructure are damaged in this disaster, the country’s main source of income (which is 50-60% of total revenue and 20% of GDP) will come to a complete halt. Final Conclusion: It will take 10 to 15 years to return to normal Economic and disaster management experts are comparing this crisis to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010, from which even after 16 years, Haiti has not been able to fully recover till date. Experts believe that due to this earthquake, Venezuela’s GDP will suffer a direct shock of 2% to 20%. Unless the global community comes forward to waive or restructure Venezuela’s debt, large-scale international financial assistance is provided and political stability is maintained in the country, it may take at least 10 years or more for Venezuela to completely recover from this mega-crisis and get back on track.