Like so much of the world, it is infrastructure built on get by concrete construction without code. Most of the buildings not destroyed should be as their damage is likely so severe they are unsafe.
Venezuela was one of the most wonderful places I worked. Hotel Tamanaco in Caracas was where I lived most of the time when I was there.
Even given that, a surprising number of high-rises are still standing, they've shed their outer walls and windows but the cores held.
Unsafe, but survivable during the quake.
The worst failures were total buildings falling over to one side.
It looks like most of the smaller (older?) buildings up to four and five floors came through without massive damage. The midrise buildings did get hammered, but not all of them. I wonder if it will turn out to be buildings from a specific time period that collapsed. But I have no idea how building codes have changed in Venezuela.
Obviously living in tepees and stick huts with thatched roofs is a wise choice. We have been underestimated aboriginals and sub-Saharan Africa ....
We lived down the hill in La Hacienda when we first arrived, then in Prados Del Este. The video from La Guaira is devastating.