Two earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck northern Venezuela on June 24, 2026. Ten buildings collapsed in Caracas, the airport closed due to severe damage, and thousands of people trapped under the rubble. And when night fell, the volunteers on the rubble shouted the same thing: “We need flashlights”. 🔦
It was not a metaphor. Local rescue teams were operating literally in the dark, using their mobile phone screens to search for survivors, because they did not have the basic equipment for a catastrophe of that magnitude. Fire department spokespersons themselves warned of “serious difficulties due to a lack of specialized technical tools”. 😓
While the State was failing, it was the Venezuelan diaspora in Spain that reacted first: the NGO Refugiados sin Fronteras organized a collection of emergency supplies from Madrid. Among the most urgent items on the list: flashlights and batteries. Their own firefighters needed them. 🇻🇪