Back-to-back powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela, collapsing buildings in the capital of Caracas

Back-to-back earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck off Venezuela's coast on Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in Caracas and causing evacuations across the region as far as Brazil's Amazon. The USGS-reported quakes—among the strongest in Venezuela in over a century—were felt in multiple countries, with the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issuing alerts for Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic. The article is bylined to AP journalists (Regina Garcia Cano and Juan Pablo Arraez) and draws on official sources including USGS data, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello's statements on state television, eyewitness accounts from named residents, and regional government responses, demonstrating solid reporting standards. Independent coverage from USA Today, NBC News, ABC News, and CNN corroborates the magnitude figures and structural damage; USA Today adds the significant detail that USGS warned "high casualties and damage are probable," providing crucial context about the disaster's severity that this article does not explicitly state. Readers should monitor official casualty counts and damage assessments, which were notably absent from government statements within hours of the event—a point the article appropriately flags as a source of public criticism.