Venezuela's Interim President Delcy Rodríguez announced on Thursday that the death toll from the twin earthquakes that devastated the country's northern coast on June 24 had climbed to 2,595, as emergency crews continued searching for survivors amid growing scrutiny of the government's disaster response.

Addressing reporters at La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, Rodríguez said 12,400 people had been injured, while 6,462 others had been rescued alive from collapsed structures. She noted that search-and-rescue teams from 33 countries were working alongside Venezuelan authorities to support ongoing operations.

Responding to criticism over the pace of the government's response, Rodríguez said emergency measures were implemented within hours of the disaster, allowing civil protection units and other state agencies to be rapidly deployed to affected areas.

"We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We acted immediately," Rodríguez said, adding that an emergency decree had been issued shortly after the earthquakes to coordinate rescue and relief efforts nationwide.

She emphasized that authorities would continue rescue operations for as long as there remained a possibility of finding survivors trapped beneath the debris, reaffirming the government's commitment to assisting communities affected by the disaster.

The twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude and striking less than a minute apart, were the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. The disaster caused extensive damage across La Guaira state and neighboring coastal areas, displaced thousands of residents and prompted a broad international humanitarian response.(ILKHA)