Venezuelans sleep in cars and under trees as they question where they'll live after the earthquakes

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Quintero family crowded around their new home this week after two deadly earthquakes forced them to flee their apartment building in Caracas.

Francisco Quintero reserved the seats of his small, beat-up car for his children, while the trunk is now home to Paquito, their green-and-red parakeet, and a handful of pet turtles.

Quintero, a musician, said he and other adults in the family search nightly for a place to sleep near the car “until we get an answer about what they might do with us.”

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes that throttled Venezuela on Wednesday evening just 39 seconds apart toppled buildings in Caracas and beyond, with hundreds of homes damaged. The number of confirmed dead — already in the hundreds — is expected to rise as frantic search-and-rescue missions continue.

Thousands of Venezuelans left suddenly homeless have since poured into parks, plazas and even the shoulders of blocked highways, looking for a place to lay their heads. The latest crisis in this nation of roughly 30 million comes after decades of economic struggle. More than half of the population lives in extreme poverty and nearly 8 million were already in need of humanitarian aid before the quakes struck.

In Guaira — the hardest hit state just north of Caracas — families placed sheets on a dusty baseball field to claim their space, their belongings stuffed into plastic bags. Others sought shelter under palm trees. Among them was 35-year-old Alexandra Martínez and her two children.

“The apartment is completely wrecked,” she said as she wiped away tears. “The walls, the kitchen, everything, are destroyed. It split right down the middle.”

Similar scenes played out across Caracas.

“We have nowhere to live,” Desiré Gil said. “This is the only option we have for the moment.”

The 37-year-old mother of four children, including one who is six months pregnant, now lives atop a small, grassy plaza with her family.

Nearby, people used backpacks as pillows and opened colorful beach umbrellas for shade as helicopters buzzed overhead.

Gil’s residence did not fall, but parts are crumbling and she refuses to go back: “Our fear is that the building might collapse on top of us."

Like many others, she’s waiting for Venezuela’s civil protection agency to inspect cracked and crumbling buildings and determine if they’re still safe to live in.

But it’s unclear when those inspections might start. The government is still focused on saving lives, with thousands believed missing across Venezuela’s northern region, where the quakes killed at least 920 people and injured more than 3,300 others.

Gil, who sells mangos and other goods for a living, said her pregnant daughter had contractions and went to the hospital on Thursday, only to be turned away. A portion of the maternity ward had collapsed, and the hospital was already overflowing with patients sent by other institutions.

The Ministry of Education said some school buildings would be used as shelters, but it wasn't clear how many. For now, Gil said she and her family would live atop the grassy mound “until the government gives us an answer.”

Experts have said they are not surprised at the crumpled buildings.

José Rangel, a civil engineer and university professor, noted that more than 50% of Caracas was built before 1982, the year the government approved a new construction code for seismic zones.

“Everything that we’ve built before that year is seismically vulnerable,” he told state TV station Venezolana de Televisión.

Rangel said he and other engineers were working on seismic retrofitting plans and prioritizing the evaluation of schools, hospitals, bridges and other infrastructure before the earthquakes hit.

He called on the government to rebuild stronger and apply existing recommendations, warning it could take weeks to evaluate buildings and determine if they’re safe.

“It’s a process that lies ahead,” Rangel said. “Right now, the most important issue is rescuing people.”

He called on engineers, architects and others to join upcoming inspection efforts.

“The causes of the collapse must be determined,” he said. “It’s how we learn lessons after an earthquake.”

Magaly Noguera and her family are among the Venezuelans awaiting an inspection. They live in a high-rise that was damaged, with Noguera recalling how she and her son, along with his wife and 3-year-old child, hugged each other under the kitchen door frame until they could run downstairs to a safer place.

“That day, the descent seemed endless to me,” she said. “I don’t want to be in my house.”

They now sleep outside near a government building, surrounded by others in the same situation.

Across the street, a man lugged a mattress on his left shoulder while his partner carried several pillows under her right arm. Nestled between them was a small child as they walked to parts unknown.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A man stands in front of a collapsed building two days after an earthquake struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026.(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

People camp out the night after earthquakes struck Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026 (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

People camp in the street the night after the earthquake struck Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

People search through the rubble two days after an earthquake struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Residents sit near their destroyed homes two days after an earthquake struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Iran for carrying out a drone strike on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a “foolish violation” of the ceasefire agreement with the United States.

One of four drones fired at the ship damaged its upper deck during the attack Thursday, but the ship was able to proceed, Trump said. The U.S. shot down the other drones, he said.

“We knocked down three of them. One of them, I guess — we didn’t miss it. Nobody saw it coming,” Trump said.

Trump did not say whether the U.S. will respond to the attack.

The British military said on Thursday that a container ship was hit a projectile off the coast of Oman, coming hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said no injuries were reported.

The development came during a fragile time for the U.S. and Iran as they work to negotiate a permanent end to the war. Iran has increasingly challenged the region and the U.S. over its control of the Strait of Hormuz, even with the current interim deal it reached with the U.S. last week.

The attack on the cargo ship happened while a United Nations maritime agency was beginning an operation to move stranded ships out of the strait this week, using an alternative route, hugging the shores of Oman rather than sailing through the central part of the strait.

The International Maritime Organization halted the evacuations after the attack and said on Friday they won’t resume until there are guarantees that the other ships won’t be attacked.

About 115 ships were able to move out of the strait in recent days, leaving about 500 still in the area, said Arsenio Dominguez, the agency’s secretary-general.

The opening of the alternative passage through the strait was expected to relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing peace talks with the U.S.

The U.S. and Iran are still negotiating terms of the deal, including issues such as getting ships through the key strait and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the interim deal, the two sides have 60 days to work out the details.

Shipping analysts said the drone strike cast a shadow over what had been a growing stream of trapped vessels finally leaving the Gulf and an increasing flow of tankers carrying crude oil.

“A week of widening commercial confidence in the Strait of Hormuz has hit its first significant test,” said marine data company Windward on X. It said that while the strait remains operationally open with 43 transits recorded after the incident, “the pace of normalization has slowed.”

On Wednesday before Thursday’s drone strike, 78 vessels transited the strait, the highest since the war began, although below the prewar averages of 130 or more per day.

At least two tankers reversed course while attempting to transit the strait on the U.N.-backed route near Oman after Iran insisted vessels use only the Teheran-approved routes, according to marine data and analytic firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

More than two dozen ships were still transiting the strait's southern route after the attack, Lloyd's said Friday.

Ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon announced an agreement Friday described as a step toward peace following months of conflict between Israeli troops and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Nada Hamadeh, Lebanon's ambassador to the U.S., called the framework a move toward "enabling our people to go back to their land and allowing all Lebanese to live in peace, security, and prosperity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the plan was a “great achievement” for Israel.

“The most important thing, first and foremost, is that Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon,” he said, adding that they will stay until Hezbollah is disarmed and no longer poses a threat to Israel.

A missile warning in the United Arab Emirates caused by a technical glitch Friday underscored the ongoing tensions in the region and startled many across the city-state of Dubai.

A short time after the alert, the Emiratis said there was a telephone call between Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. It quoted Sheikh Abdullah as telling Araghchi that the UAE “emphasized the importance of full commitment” to the interim deal between Iran and the U.S.

“Serious diplomacy and responsible dialogue are the optimal path for addressing all regional and international crises,” it said.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Washington, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Residents swim in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz as a small motorboat passes cargo ships and other commercial vessels offshore near Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

Destroyed buildings in a village in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)