The Venezuelan capital Caracas and the nearby city of Guaira, where the central Venezuelan airport Maiquetía is located, were shaken by severe earthquakes, the first with a magnitude of 7.2 and the second with a magnitude of 7.5. Each occurred in its own location along the Caribbean coast, following one after the other, causing massive casualties and massive damage. The number of victims is only temporary, so far they have counted 164, but they fear that there will be at least ten thousand. Twenty thousand people are missing, and many more are homeless.
The tragedy happened on the day that Venezuela celebrates the anniversary of the Battle of Carabob, in which on June 24, 1821, Venezuela and with it all of Latin America achieved one of the landmark victories over the Spanish conquerors. Simón Bolívar, after whom the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is also named, then dealt the hardest blow to the Spanish kingdom.
