The official death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela earlier this week continues to climb, even as international rescue teams begin to withdraw from the hardest-hit areas.
Seven days after the 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude quakes devastated the region, the focus is shifting from immediate search-and-rescue efforts to an assessment of the structural damage that has compounded the disaster.
Experts are increasingly pointing to widespread structural failures as a primary driver of the high casualty rate.
Reports indicate that numerous public buildings collapsed or sustained severe damage, raising serious questions about construction quality and building code enforcement in the country.
The debate over infrastructure resilience has intensified as the full scale of the destruction becomes clearer.
The disaster has drawn a significant international response, with search-and-rescue teams from Slovakia and other nations joining the effort.