Posted on 06/29/2026 4:57:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
The twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela this week were not merely acts of nature—they laid bare decades of deliberate neglect and ideological folly. A magnitude 7.2 quake followed seconds later by a 7.5 temblor devastated the northern coast near Caracas, particularly La Guaira state, collapsing buildings and claiming at least 1,430 lives as of the latest reports, with tens of thousands still missing.
Rescue workers sifting through the rubble made a grim discovery: entire apartment complexes, many erected under Hugo Chávez’s “Grand Housing Mission,” were little more than facades held together by Styrofoam and thin concrete shells.
Video from the scene shows rescuers pulling apart walls with their bare hands, the interior material crumbling like packing foam. “No wonder everything crumbled like cardboard,” one rescuer remarked, as colleagues openly criticized the regime’s failures.
VIDEOS AT LINK..............
👀😳The images coming out of Venezuela are raising serious questions.😳👀
Collapsed buildings appear to reveal large amounts of EPS (Styrofoam) inside structural elements. EPS can be safely used in construction—but only when properly engineered with reinforced concrete and… pic.twitter.com/AT5JvKr5iU— 🇺🇸 𝓐𝓟𝓡𝓘𝓛 𝓢𝓟𝓐𝓡𝓚𝓢 🇺🇸 (@AprilSpark1890) June 28, 2026
This catastrophe was foreseeable. Engineers and even some within the Chávez government had long warned that rushed socialist housing projects ignored seismic codes and basic engineering standards. Construction accelerated under Nicolás Maduro to meet political quotas, prioritizing propaganda over safety. The result? Pancaked high-rises and neighborhoods reduced to dust, burying families who trusted the state to provide.
Venezuela’s tragedy stands as a stark warning against centralized power that promises utopia while delivering death. The “Bolivarian Revolution” gutted the private sector, invited corruption, and left the nation ill-equipped for even routine governance, let alone disaster response.
Years of mismanagement, compounded by the regime’s isolation, meant scant heavy equipment and bureaucratic hurdles for aid workers. Interim leadership under Delcy Rodríguez declared disaster zones and restricted access, even as the 72-hour golden window for rescues closed.
The Human Cost of Ideological Hubris
Entire blocks in La Guaira vanished. A four-building complex saw three structures leveled, destroying hundreds of apartments. Survivors and volunteers clawed through debris for days before international teams arrived. Foreign rescuers, including from the United States, now labor alongside locals amid aftershocks, but the scale overwhelms. Over 3,000 injured and thousands in shelters paint a picture of a nation on its knees.
Non-government groups tracked nearly 50,000 unaccounted for, a figure that underscores the regime’s opacity. US Geological Survey models suggest the toll could climb far higher, potentially ranking among Latin America’s worst in a century. Yet the deeper failure lies not in the earth’s movement, but in leaders who built on sand—literally and figuratively.
Socialism’s track record in Venezuela offers no surprises. What began as grand promises of housing for the masses devolved into shoddy structures that could not withstand the shaking ground. Private construction withered under state control, leaving citizens vulnerable. This is the predictable fruit of a system that values loyalty over competence and central planning over reality.
Lessons in Stewardship and Truth As the world watches, the contrast with nations that value property rights, accountability, and sound governance could not be clearer. Free societies build with durability because they answer to the people, not party dictates. Venezuela’s rulers, by contrast, rushed projects for optics, ignoring warnings from their own experts.
In the rubble lies a call to discernment. Scripture reminds us of the peril of building without foundation: “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:26-27).
Venezuela’s leaders built upon the shifting sands of ideology, and the fall has been catastrophic.
American aid and global response offer immediate relief, but the long-term path forward requires Venezuelans to reject the lies that brought them here. True security flows from honest governance, respect for human life, and structures—both physical and moral—that endure. The Styrofoam walls stand as a monument to failure, a warning for any society tempted by similar delusions.
May the victims rest, the survivors find strength, and the world learn before the next preventable disaster strikes.
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Coming soon to a metropolis near you…
Wonder if Trump will offer competent reconstruction for oil deal.
In this episode of Technique of the Week on Deco-Crete TV, Jeff walks through the essential steps of applying GFRC mix to styrofoam to create foam core vertical concrete. Learn how to give your foam structure and strength using GFRC backer mix without the need for a face coat. Discover tips for proper mixing, application thickness, and achieving the perfect consistency for your vertical concrete projects. Perfect for creating realistic faux rock or adding durable textures to various surfaces.
https://youtu.be/c7PoZSAYx_4?is=Ew1P4FSDvpKFRdsr
This event is like a thousand Surfside collapses
I read one place that there are 50,000 missing still to be found................
You can watch the same video about China.
I bet, the pre-Chavezista buildings are still standing.
7.2 or 7.5 are strong earthquakes, but still well manageable with proper building codes!
Similar earthquakes in Chile would be shrugged.
see in Chile 8.8 magnitude earthquake:
The El Maule, Chile 2010 MW = 8.8 earthquake struck the main cities of Santiago, Concepcion and
Viña del Mar where there are many tall building of reinforced concrete. The El Maule, Chile 2010 MW = 8.8 earthquake struck the main cities of Santiago, Concepcion and Viña del Mar where there are many tall building of reinforced concrete.
The earthquake was
characterized by the collapse of one tall building in Concepción and two five stories concrete
buildings in Santiago.
Despite the few catastrophes, it appears that tall buildings performed well and
the vast majority of those buildings that did incur damage provided at least life safety as it was
recommended by the Chilean code Nch 433 of 96 “Earthquake resistant design of buildings”. Only
2.8% of the analyzed of 1939 buildings of more than 8 stories with permit between 1985 and 2009
shown failure, which was a very pleasant outcome, since the tall buildings were subjected to strong
ground shaking and long shaking duration that have not been experienced before. Despite the few catastrophes, it appears that tall buildings performed well and
the vast majority of those buildings that did incur damage provided at least life safety as it was
recommended by the Chilean code Nch 433 of 96 “Earthquake resistant design of buildings”. Only
2.8% of the analyzed of 1939 buildings of more than 8 stories with permit between 1985 and 2009
shown failure, which was a very pleasant outcome, since the tall buildings were subjected to strong
ground shaking and long shaking duration that have not been experienced before.
Of course the way they are slapping together $300K homes in South Carolina, would the Palmetto State fare much better in a big shake?
How do you say “Tofu Dregs” en Espanol?
Styrofoam is used for insulation, but there is no excuse for a thin layer of concrete, whatsoever. But should we be surprised? I don’t think so.
Welcome to New York City.
Concrete on top of Styrofoam is for decoration purpose, not structural strength and support.
I wonder if Maduro was still in power there would they have lynched him by now?................
Yep, same in China. There are many videos of people pulling chunks of styrofoam-like material out of their walls, bending “rebar” with bare hands, etc. It’s a communist / leftist thing — appearances and feelings trumping reality. We see the same thing with the left in this country.
I doubt it, like Iran, all it takes is to kill about 40K of the people before the rest return to thir poorly constructed abodes.
Like the Irainian regemie, Chave wouldn't care one bit that perhaps when all is examined, perhaps 400K of deaths wouldn't faze Hugo one bit. Just the cost of maintaining complete control.
Have the press and other Democrats blamed Trump yet?
When you think about it styrofoam could be the answer to the homeless crisis. Box-sized huts go up in minutes. Just make them biodegradable as the homeless find work as migrant farm workers. Get rid of the encampments.
Socialism/communism is nothing but population control. Keep the peons under control, eliminate unnecessary eaters and let the rest serve their betters. Many vote their way into this, and the rest are led into it at the point of a gun. Only guns will get them out of it.
The difference is Surfside actually had REBAR in the concrete. It was not maintained.
These buildings seem to not have ANY rebar in the pictures I have seen.
It sounds just like the tofu dreg construction technique that has become very common in China these days. Makes me wonder if those buildings might have been built by a Chinese firm.
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