Photograph taken on August 5, 2026, showing vendor Norazbel Rodríguez (right) at the Catia La Mar Community Market (Venezuela). EFE/Miguel Gutiérrez
Vargas (Venezuela), Aug 13 (EFE) – Fishermen and merchants in La Guaira are engaged in a daily struggle to guarantee their livelihood in this Venezuelan coastal state, the hardest hit by the devastating earthquakes of June 24.
More than a month after the powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, which left at least 6,301 dead and 73,356 injured, according to the most recent official tally, more and more businesses are reopening, while fishermen have returned to casting their nets into the sea.
Catching “little fish”
At the La Zorra dock, in the Catia La Mar parish, in the Vargas municipality, about three fishermen dock their boat loaded with yellowfin tuna, which they can sell for about four or five dollars per kilo, as they explain to EFE.
“They gave us the gasoline and we started going out to fish again, and thank God we are starting to catch small fish,” Andrés García Rodríguez told EFE, adding that after the double earthquake they were unable to go fishing for a week because they did not have the necessary fuel for the small boats.
As he finished unloading about three yellowfin tuna, which can weigh approximately 10 kilos each, García Rodríguez noted that demand has dropped after the tragedy, but admitted that he hopes sales will increase in the coming weeks so that he can “survive”.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture told EFE that 60% of the restaurants specializing in this type of food in the region are open.
Furthermore, they report that there are still fishermen searching for their relatives among the rubble, since, he assured, most of them lived in the buildings known as OPPE (referring to the acronym Presidential Office of Special Projects) and the Hugo Chávez urban development, where numerous damages and the collapse of buildings have been reported.
Fisherman José Gómez told this agency that the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Juan Carlos Loyo, “has been very helpful” in assisting dockworkers, who also suffered damage to their homes after the earthquakes.
Gomez continues to live in his house, even though the portico collapsed, but he is confident that the government will help him and other colleagues who lost their homes.
“Some of my colleagues lost family members, and a friend of ours who bought fish from us was also killed,” he lamented.
Trade is recovering “step by step”
The EFE team was able to confirm during a tour of the area a greater number of shops open in the region, although with few customers inside their premises.
Norazbel Rodríguez, a vendor of baking supplies and plastic containers, worked from home after the Catia La Mar Community Market, where she had worked for seven years, burned down during the earthquakes. She returned to the market a few days ago, though she is now selling her products outside the market.
“Thank God, we didn’t lose any family members, but we did lose our businesses; a total loss, they burned down, and well, here we are starting step by step. They gave us the opportunity to get going and here we are,” she told EFE as some customers arrived asking for dates.
At the moment, she doesn’t know what will happen to the burned-down infrastructure. And she’s not the only one who has set up shop around the market; other vendors have erected awnings to sell vegetables, fruits, pet food, and other items.
The National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomercio) recently reported that 90% of businesses in La Guaira “not affected” by the earthquakes are already operational.
However, in a post on the social network Instagram, the organization explained that being open does not equate to “normal billing”.
“Many businesses are facing the loss of suppliers, customers, and staff after the crisis,” Consecomercio pointed out.
In light of this, he urgently requested a review of taxes from local, regional, and national authorities, noting that greater “fiscal empathy” is needed to ease the burden on businesses in reconstruction.
Likewise, the La Guaira Governorate announced this week a business roundtable with the participation of seven banks, both public and private, to address the requests of the region’s merchants and business owners, in order to help them in their economic recovery after the disaster.
