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GWYNNE DYER: Could things change in Venezuela?

After receiving little aid following a recent earthquake, Venezuelans are likely eyeing their allegiance with the United States

Bad things happen, and some of them are nobody’s fault.

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Big earthquakes in Venezuela are about a century apart (1812, 1902, 2026), so you can’t blame the planners and the politicians for not being well prepared for this one. How high a priority should they have given to an event that will kill a few thousand people once a century in a country of 28 million people?

Besides, the only thing you can do to ‘prepare’ for earthquakes is to reinforce your buildings and infrastructure, and Venezuela couldn’t afford to do that. Half the population lives below the poverty level. True, they are poor mainly because the regime is corrupt and incompetent, but even a better regime would spend its money on anti-poverty measures, not earthquakes.

So no shame there — but there’s plenty of blame to share for the regime’s failure to respond quickly and effectively to the aftermath of the twin earthquakes only one minute apart. The chief threat in earthquakes is always collapsing buildings, and anybody who is still trapped under the wreckage........

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