CARACAS, July 4: The fallout from Venezuela’s powerful twin quakes has evolved into a major test for acting President Delcy Rodríguez, sending her scrambling to prevent the humanitarian disaster from becoming a political one as her mandate as interim leader expires Friday.
A day after Rodríguez angrily defended the competence of her government’s relief effort at her first news conference since the June 24 disaster, her main rival, exiled Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, issued her own appeal. Machado on Friday argued that the government’s quake response exposed its critical weaknesses and that she should return to Venezuela to help “the transition process, especially after the tragedy.” (AP)
