Wednesday briefing: After two powerful earthquakes, what is the reality on the ground in Venezuela?

The shaking seemed to come from nowhere. In a moment captured by fishers off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, two earthquakes struck seconds apart . Plumes of dust appear where buildings once stood in the recording as the camera rises and falls with the swell. The men rapidly head for the shore in search of their families. “I’m shaking,” says the cameraman. Since the quakes struck last Wednesday, the search for missing loved ones has not stopped for scores of Venezuelans. Officially, more than 1,700 people have died. But tens of thousands remain missing: desperate relatives are walking up and down streets lined by rubble and collapsed buildings with photos of those they cannot find, asking for help. One week on, people are still being pulled from the rubble. On Monday, a 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas was rescued after spending 106 hours trapped under a collapsed building. But with every passing second, hope is fading in a nation that was already fragile due to economic crises, corruption and the capture of its former dictator Nicolás Maduro by US forces earlier this year. For today on First Edition, I spoke with Clavel Rangel , a Venezuelan journalist, who has been reporting for the Guardian on the earthquake and the desperate search for survivors since it struck. But first, the headlines. Five big stories World news | A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes. …