Remote Venezuelan village faces shortages after quake cuts off income and supplies

A remote Venezuelan coastal village that avoided the worst physical damage from the June 24 earthquakes is facing shortages and lost income after the disaster disrupted travel, tourism and trade.

World Food Programme trucks travelled along a winding coastal road toward Chichiriviche de la Costa, leaving the badly damaged town of Catia La Mar behind. The village was relatively unscathed by the twin earthquakes, but its resources were cut off in the aftermath.

The route includes steep climbs, sharp bends and unpaved stretches. The village normally depends on visitors and fish sales, but tourists have stopped coming and sales have stalled.

The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes shattered the coastal state of La Guaira, killing at least 5,069 people and causing hundreds of buildings to crumble.

Chichiriviche de la Costa has a population of about 2,000. It received humanitarian aid from the Netherlands by helicopter in the days after the disaster. On Thursday, the WFP distributed supplies in the village's main square as part of a three-month program worth $80 million.

Andreina Liendo, 54, said there had been no deaths in the village, but some minor shortages. She said the aid was helping residents manage. She collected about 50 kilograms of rice, pasta, flour, oil, salt and other supplies with her four-year-old son, Andres. The supplies were meant to last a month and were part of about 25 tons distributed to 498 families in one day.

The United Nations agency will provide around 500,000 tons of food to remote areas and makeshift shelters across the earthquake zone.

WFP emergency coordinator Marc-Andre Prost said the aim was to help the community through a period without income and ensure people could meet essential food needs. He said attention was also needed for communities outside the worst-hit areas in the first days and weeks after the earthquake.

Residents described damage and fear, as well as the loss of earnings. Wilfrank Liendo, 40, and his son Eduardo, 21, carried heavy food bags across a stream and along dirt paths to Liendo's elderly mother, Margarita Mayora, 79, a widow who lives with five people. Mayora said the food would last her quite a long time because her household was not large. Some of her ceilings were cracked, and she said she had been sleeping on the porch because she feared another disaster.

Wilfrank Liendo said the family lived from tourism and had no income if tourists did not come. He said he was a farmer but had no one to buy what he produced.

Leida Bello, a 45-year-old cleaner, carried supplies to her home, where some walls were cracked and one had collapsed. She said she did not have the means to repair the damage and that residents had to find a way to survive.

Adalberto Maypora, 70, inspected his fishing boat on a deserted beach. He said fishermen were still going to sea and giving fish to villagers and to people displaced by the earthquakes, while authorities covered fuel costs. But he said there was no cash and asked who would buy the fish if tourists did not return. He said people would have to ration food.