--- title: "State Department Confirms Three Americans Dead in the Venezuela Earthquakes" description: "The U.S. State Department says three American citizens were killed in the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, with a dozen more unaccounted for, as rescue teams — including a task force from California — keep searching the rubble of a disaster that has claimed more than 1,700 lives." category: "U.S." category_url: https://herald.la/category/us author: "Simone Bishop" published: 2026-06-30T02:48:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-30T02:48:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/state-department-confirms-three-americans-dead-in-the-venezuela-earthquakes tags: ["Venezuela", "earthquake", "State Department", "Americans abroad", "disaster", "Marco Rubio"] --- # State Department Confirms Three Americans Dead in the Venezuela Earthquakes The U.S. State Department says three American citizens were killed in the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, with a dozen more unaccounted for, as rescue teams — including a task force from California — keep searching the rubble of a disaster that has claimed more than 1,700 lives. A disaster the Herald has tracked since the night the ground shook beneath Caracas now has an American toll. ## Three confirmed dead The State Department confirmed this week that three U.S. citizens died in the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela. A senior administration official told [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/venezuela/venezuela-earthquake-latest-death-toll-missing-rescues-la-guaira-rcna352179) that of roughly 5,000 Americans believed to be in the country when the quakes struck, three were confirmed dead and twelve remained missing, with more than 300 others contacting the department for help. The State Department said its consular team has reached the families of the three who died; no identities have been released, and the Herald is not speculating about who they were or where they were when the quakes hit. ## Working under strained conditions Reaching Americans on the ground has been difficult. The United States and Venezuela have had only sharply limited formal ties since 2019, complicating consular work in a country where Washington has no functioning embassy. The department is directing U.S. citizens who need help to call 1-888-407-4747 from the U.S. or Canada, or +1-202-501-4444 from abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the broader American response as "a whole-of-government response" that "will be big; it'll be fast; and it'll be effective," [according to the State Department](https://www.state.gov/responding-to-venezuela-earthquakes). The Treasury Department issued a general license on June 25 authorizing earthquake-relief transactions despite U.S. sanctions on Caracas. ## A disaster of historic scale The twin quakes — a magnitude 7.2 followed seconds later by a 7.5 — struck on the evening of June 24, devastating Caracas neighborhoods and the coastal city of La Guaira. More than 1,700 people have been confirmed dead and thousands injured, with hundreds of buildings collapsed; family-tracing databases have logged tens of thousands of names of the missing, a figure officials caution is uncertain. The United Nations has put the economic damage at roughly $4.7 billion to $8.7 billion — several percent of Venezuela's economy. ## American teams in the search The U.S. mounted one of its largest international relief deployments in recent memory. Among the first foreign teams to arrive were FEMA's Virginia Task Force One and California Task Force Two — together about 150 searchers and a dozen dogs — alongside a Disaster Assistance Response Team, [WAVY reported](https://www.wavy.com/news/va-task-force-1-conducts-rescue-missions-in-venezuela-following-earthquakes/). Washington has pledged $150 million in humanitarian aid, routed through relief organizations and UN agencies, and more than 2,600 international rescuers from at least seven countries are now working the disaster zone. The Herald has covered the catastrophe since the first tremors, including the broader death toll and the fate of deported Venezuelans missing in the chaos; the confirmation of American deaths marks a new and sobering chapter. ## Sources - [Three Americans dead in Venezuela earthquakes, says State Department](https://thehill.com/policy/international/5946657-venezuela-earthquakes-three-americans-die/) - [Venezuela earthquake latest: death toll, missing, rescues in La Guaira](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/venezuela/venezuela-earthquake-latest-death-toll-missing-rescues-la-guaira-rcna352179) - [Responding to the Venezuela earthquakes](https://www.state.gov/responding-to-venezuela-earthquakes)