Venezuela's deadly quakes put its U.S.-backed government to the test

A person searches for victims on June 27 amid debris of a collapsed building after powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, in Los Corales, Venezuela. Edilzon Gamez/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Edilzon Gamez/Getty Images LOS CORALES, Venezuela — A backhoe is digging through the ruins of a 12-story building that collapsed in this town on Venezuela's Caribbean coast during last week's back-to-back earthquakes. But the government backhoe operator never showed up, so local residents passed the hat for donations to pay for one. Such delays are costing lives, says Rosalia Bustamante, who lost several friends who were inside the building. "There were people in the ruins responding when we called out to them," she says. "But now, they are dead." Frustration is growing in Venezuela following the powerful twin quakes that the government says have killed at least 1,719 people. Critics claim the response from the country's U.S.-backed government has been slow and inept, leaving it largely up to people in the disaster zone to save themselves and recover the dead. Such is the scene in Los Corales, in La Guaira, the state which the government says was hit the hardest by the disaster. Neighborhood volunteers have pulled more than a dozen corpses out of the 12-story building. But lacking body bags, they resort to garbage bags and plastic sheets. There are no refrigerated containers to store the bodies and in the tropical heat, the stench is overpowering. …