La Guaira Returns to Work Amid Rubble
- Two months after two earthquakes struck La Guaira in June 2026, residents are trading from improvised tents and temporary markets rather than rebuilt premises.
- Alejandra, who lost her home and beauty salon in Catia La Mar, returned to work within a fortnight by setting up a manicure stall under a tarpaulin at Playa Verde.
- Tourism has not returned to La Guaira, and damaged commercial buildings remain unrepaired across the affected area.
Two months after a pair of earthquakes struck Venezuela's La Guaira coast in June, residents are returning to work not in rebuilt premises but beneath improvised canopies, surrounded by rubble, with no sign of the tourism trade that once sustained the region.
Back to work under canvas
Alejandra is one of those residents. Within a fortnight of losing both her home and her beauty salon, she had erected a small tent at Playa Verde in Catia La Mar — the epicentre of the second earthquake — and resumed offering manicure and pedicure services to neighbours. "I put up my tent to offer my services to the community," she said. "Through work we can recover, and we can also help the community at this very difficult time."
Her story is reflected in the improvised commercial life visible across the district. Temporary markets have sprung up outside the Mercado Comunitario de Catia La Mar, while the fish market known as El Mosquero in Maiquetía was trading as recently as 21 August, even as damaged buildings that once housed shops stand unrepaired nearby.
Tourism absent, rubble persistent
The title of the region's pre-earthquake economy was built in part on coastal tourism, but that trade has not returned. La Guaira's broader struggle to revive tourism remains unresolved, with the physical destruction still visible across affected neighbourhoods two months on.
The human cost of the disaster extended beyond property loss. Reports have previously documented deaths among those trapped in a state intelligence facility when the quakes struck, adding a further dimension to the ongoing reckoning with the disaster's full impact.
Recovery uncertain
With formal reconstruction evidently slow and the tourism economy still dormant, the improvised resilience of traders like Alejandra represents the dominant mode of recovery for now — community-led, makeshift, and conducted in the shadow of wreckage that has yet to be cleared.
