Venezuela's Seismic Zone Faces Cascading Risks: Aging Infrastructure, Weak Enforcement, Limited Monitoring

Two 2024 earthquakes near Venezuela's northeastern coast—magnitudes 5.2 and 4.9—exposed a critical vulnerability gap. The region sits atop one of the Caribbean's most active seismic zones, yet coastal settlements were not built to modern standards. Economic contraction has eroded code enforcement and maintenance. Compounding this, Venezuela's seismic monitoring agency operates under resource constraints that limit station density and data analysis, especially in remote eastern provinces. Even moderate tremors now carry outsized risk.