Reuters Investigation: Confused Chain of Command Left Venezuelan Troops Idle for Days After Quakes

Since the June 24 earthquakes killed roughly 5,000 people in Venezuela, according to government figures, the death toll from the Upper East Side Legionnaires' outbreak and the Iran conflict have dominated the news cycle. But a new Reuters investigation, published July 18 and carried by the Japan Times on July 19, digs into something that hasn't gotten a full accounting yet: why Venezuela's own military barely showed up when its people needed it most.

Eight sources familiar with the government's response, including active and retired military officers and people in diplomatic circles, told Reuters that delayed orders from senior commanders, missing equipment, and outright confusion over who was in charge kept troops largely on the sidelines during the crucial first two days.

"We don't act on our own; we receive direct orders," one active-duty officer told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I can't tell my unit, 'Let's go help in La Guaira,' if I haven't been ordered to do so. We didn't have a plan like the ones that exist for defending the nation. There was no plan for dealing with something like this."

That officer's unit didn't reach La Guaira, the state hit hardest by the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes, until the day after the disaster struck.

Civilians Did the Digging

While the military waited for orders, ordinary Venezuelans did the work. Reuters reports civilians spearheaded rescue efforts during the first two days, using rudimentary tools to pull both the living and the dead from collapsed buildings in La Guaira, home to the country's main airport and a major port. International rescue teams, firefighters, and civil protection officials eventually joined, along with what Reuters describes as a limited number of Venezuelan soldiers who told the wire service they volunteered for the grim work rather than being ordered to do it.

According to a summary of the reporting circulated by Ground News, the quakes hit on Army Day, meaning many military personnel were off duty when the disaster struck. Years of economic crisis have hollowed out military readiness, with budgets going toward payroll rather than equipment, that reporting states.

The Marine Infantry Brigade reportedly sat idle without mobilization instructions. Overlapping command between National Guard commander Juan Sulbaran Quintero and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello created what sources describe as operational confusion over who was actually running the response.

"There was no plan and the chain of command was weak; many people were left uncertain who was in charge," a source familiar with diplomatic circles told Reuters, in an account cut off in available reporting but consistent with the officer's account of an improvised, unrehearsed response.

Rodriguez Pushes Back

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who has the backing of President Donald Trump, has defended her government's handling of the disaster. She says 4,000 officials were deployed immediately. But Reuters reports that military personnel and police were scarcely visible during the first hours after the quakes, according to residents, Reuters witnesses on the ground, and multiple sources with knowledge of the response.

Rodriguez has dismissed reports of chaos in the response as coming from "media laboratories," without offering evidence to rebut the specific claims about delayed orders or the confusion between Sulbaran Quintero and Cabello, according to the Ground News summary of the reporting.

Rodriguez is entitled to defend her government, and 4,000 personnel deployed is not nothing if true. But Reuters spoke to eight sources, including people inside the military itself, and none of them back up her timeline. The claim that criticism amounts to a media fabrication needs actual evidence, not a label, especially when residents and Reuters' own witnesses on the ground reported the same slow response independently.

The Death Toll Gap Still Matters

Venezuela's government puts the death toll at about 5,000. The United States Geological Survey and other experts have said the final number is likely closer to double that, according to Reuters. That gap alone raises questions about whether the government has fully reckoned with the scale of what happened, separate from the response-time controversy.

NDTV's coverage of the same reporting focused its headline on the "missing gear" angle, emphasizing equipment shortages over the command confusion Reuters foregrounds, a modest framing difference but not a factual contradiction.

No independent government inquiry into the military's response has been announced, and Rodriguez has not addressed the specific claim about overlapping authority between Sulbaran Quintero and Cabello. Venezuela's government has also not said whether it will revise its death toll estimate to account for the gap flagged by the USGS.