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Venezuela's death toll from a devastating double earthquake has climbed to nearly 3,000, with tens of thousands still missing, as international rescue teams began winding down search operations Saturday and heavy machinery moved in to demolish collapsed structures.
Official figures released Saturday put the confirmed dead at 2,954, a rise of more than 300 from the previous day.
The June 24 disaster, triggered by twin tremors of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, struck hardest along the coastal La Guaira region north of the capital Caracas, where scores of residential complexes were reduced to rubble.
More than 16,000 people have lost their homes, with displaced families sheltering in streets and makeshift camps.
Ten days after the quakes, the window for finding survivors alive, which disaster experts say typically closes within 72 hours of such an event, has largely passed, though a handful of people were pulled from the rubble earlier this week.
Rescue units from Los Angeles County, Florida and Virginia said Saturday they were preparing to leave after their latest searches yielded no signs of life.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez marked the shift from rescue to recovery by holding a ceremony to award medals to international teams, including their search dogs, in what observers took as a signal that the emergency phase was drawing to a close.
Rodriguez acknowledged that Venezuela is experiencing "a profound grief gripping our people, where families still hold out hope of finding loved ones alive."
The government's handling of the disaster has drawn public criticism.
Many Venezuelans say families were left to dig through wreckage with their bare hands during the critical early hours before state resources and international teams arrived.
Rodriguez has defended the response, saying thousands of troops and officials were deployed to affected areas.
On the ground in La Guaira, the transition from rescue to demolition was visible Saturday as workers with heavy machinery began tearing down the remaining collapsed structures, even as grieving families continued trying to recover the bodies of loved ones for burial.
Venezuelan volunteer Francisco Sasquia, helping dig out a collapsed residential building, described conditions that remained grim.
"We're still working, still searching for bodies. We're still going. It hasn't been easy," he said, adding that his team had located two bodies already returned to their families.
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