Venezuela Earthquake, Washington Eases Sanctions Without Lifting Them

Introduction: a humanitarian gesture with precise limits

A general license granted under emergency conditions

The US Treasury Department announced on June 25, 2026, that American entities could now carry out "all transactions" related to relief efforts following the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela. This General License No. 60, issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), remains in effect until October 23, 2026, a four-month window for humanitarian aid.

According to the Eastern Herald, this announcement came the same day the death toll reached 589, a figure that would keep climbing in the following days as rescue teams made their way through the rubble of collapsed buildings.

A sanctions architecture that remains intact

But this announcement in no way signals the end of the sanctions regime imposed on Venezuela since 2017. OFAC explicitly stated that this license "does not authorize the unblocking of property already frozen" under the Venezuela sanctions regulations, nor any activity prohibited by other American sanctions programs.

This technical but crucial distinction illustrates Washington's delicate position: responding to a major humanitarian catastrophe while maintaining economic and political pressure on the de facto government led by Delcy Rodríguez.

The catastrophic scale of the earthquake

Two major tremors in under a minute

According to the USGS, a first magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck west of Morón, on the Caribbean coast, roughly 170 kilometers from Caracas, on the evening of Wednesday, June 24, 2026. Barely a minute later, a second magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the same region, a combination of rare violence that several observers described as the strongest tremor to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

The human toll kept rising in the following days: from 235 deaths announced on June 25, it climbed to 589 the next day, then to 920 according to National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, before surpassing 1,400 victims according to later reports relayed by the Rio Times.

Tens of thousands missing

According to India Today, more than 50,000 people remained unaccounted for the day after the disaster, a staggering figure that raises fears of a final toll far heavier than official counts. The USGS's PAGER system, which models casualty estimates from seismic data, put the probability of the final toll exceeding 10,000 deaths at 44%, and the probability of it exceeding 100,000 at 30%.

The UN's migration agency estimated that nearly seven million people could be affected by this disaster, while a United Nations assessment put direct economic damage at roughly $6.7 billion, according to India Today.

The role of sanctions in worsening the disaster

Health infrastructure already at breaking point

Several human rights organizations have documented for years that American and European restrictions considerably hampered Venezuela's ability to import medical equipment, construction materials and basic financing, according to the Eastern Herald. This structural degradation directly amplified the earthquake's consequences on an already vulnerable population.

According to Democracy Now, UN special rapporteur Alena Douhan had already concluded, as early as 2021, that American sanctions had "exacerbated pre-existing crises" and blocked the import of "machinery, spare parts, medicine, food, agricultural supplies and other essential goods" into Venezuela.

A pressing call for broader sanctions relief

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez personally stated, according to the Eastern Herald, that it was necessary to "move toward a Venezuela free of sanctions," arguing that lasting normalization of relations remained the only path capable of guaranteeing the investment needed to rebuild the country.

This appeal, while understandable given the tragedy, runs up against the persistent geopolitical reality of a Venezuelan government still considered illegitimate by a large part of the Western international community, which considerably complicates any near-term prospect of fully lifting sanctions.

America's response on the ground

$150 million and deployed military assets

According to India Today, the United States mobilized $150 million in humanitarian aid, including $50 million for new partnerships and $100 million paid into a joint United Nations fund. Washington also deployed two warships, helicopters and transport aircraft to support search-and-rescue operations, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally spoke by phone with interim president Delcy Rodríguez, promising an "immediate" deployment of search-and-rescue teams, medical resources and other forms of assistance, despite the logistical challenges posed by the closure of the country's main airport, according to the Washington Times.

American troops to reopen logistics routes

According to the Rio Times, American troops from Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) were deployed on the ground with the specific mission of reopening the airport and the port of La Guaira, two facilities critical for delivering international aid but severely damaged by the earthquake.

This military intervention, though strictly humanitarian in its stated purpose, illustrates the complexity of relations between Washington and Caracas, where emergency cooperation coexists with persistent political distrust inherited from decades of diplomatic tension.

The structural limits of License 60

Frozen assets remain out of reach

Despite this one-time opening, Venezuela remains unable to access roughly $4.8 billion in gold held by the Bank of England, as well as nearly $5 billion in special drawing rights issued by the International Monetary Fund during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Venezuelanalysis.

These considerable sums, which could nonetheless finance a substantial part of the national reconstruction effort, remain out of the Venezuelan government's reach, as General License 60 provides no exception for unfreezing these financial assets, frozen for several years now.

China, Russia, Cuba and Iran still excluded from the exemptions

According to Venezuelanalysis, transactions between Caracas and its historic allies China, Russia, Cuba and Iran remain explicitly prohibited under the exemptions granted, staying subject to American secondary sanctions even in the context of this exceptional natural disaster.

This deliberate exclusion confirms that Washington continues to view these Venezuelan alliances as a priority strategic threat, even at the most critical moment in the country's recent humanitarian history, a stance that, in my view, remains fully justified given the destabilizing role of these regimes toward the West.

The voices calling for a full lifting of sanctions

A human rights coalition speaks out

According to Democracy Now, a coalition of human rights organizations and peace groups demanded, in a letter addressed to President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio, the complete lifting of all American sanctions against Venezuela, as the death toll surpassed 2,000 in early July.

The letter states that "as long as sweeping economic sanctions remain in place and Venezuelan assets remain frozen abroad, reconstruction will be needlessly delayed, and millions of people will continue to suffer," a statement reflecting the growing humanitarian urgency on the ground.

A debate that goes beyond the Venezuelan case alone

This debate over the balance between political sanctions and humanitarian imperatives extends well beyond the case of Venezuela alone and raises broader questions about Western doctrine on economic sanctions against regimes deemed illegitimate, whose civilian populations directly bear the consequences of these punitive measures.

For the West, this disaster could become a textbook case for the need to design more flexible sanctions mechanisms, capable of responding quickly and effectively to humanitarian emergencies without abandoning the legitimate political objectives that justify these measures under normal circumstances.

Historical precedents of American humanitarian licenses

The Syrian case as a point of comparison

This type of humanitarian general license is not without precedent in recent American diplomatic practice. After the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey in February 2023, the US Treasury quickly issued a similar 180-day exemption allowing humanitarian transactions despite the sanctions regime imposed on Damascus.

This Syrian precedent shows that Washington already has a proven mechanism for reconciling geopolitical firmness with a rapid humanitarian response, a framework the administration has clearly chosen to replicate in the Venezuelan case, though the four-month duration remains shorter than what was granted to Syria.

Lessons learned from past criticism

Humanitarian organizations had widely criticized the slowness of the American response during the Syrian earthquake, a delay that cost precious lives during the crucial early hours of search and rescue. In the Venezuelan case, the license was issued in less than 24 hours following the disaster, a responsiveness that reflects real institutional learning within the Treasury Department.

This relative speed should not, however, obscure the structural limits that remain identical from one case to the next: temporary humanitarian exemptions never replace a fundamental reform of the sanctions regime, and leave open the broader question of American doctrine toward natural disasters striking states under embargo.

Reactions from the international community

A mobilization beyond the United States alone

Beyond the American response, several countries and international organizations announced contributions to the Venezuelan relief effort, including search-and-rescue teams sent by several Latin American nations and funds released by various United Nations agencies to support operations on the ground.

This international mobilization, while welcome, remains largely insufficient given the scale of needs estimated by experts, who put reconstruction costs at several billion dollars over several years, an immense financial burden for a country already in deep economic crisis for nearly a decade.

The relative silence of some of Caracas's allies

It is striking that the response from some of Venezuela's historic allies, notably Russia and Iran, has remained relatively modest compared to the scale of announced American aid, an asymmetry that illustrates the practical limits of these geopolitical alliances when it comes time to concretely respond to a humanitarian emergency.

This disproportion between the solidarity rhetoric displayed by these regimes and their actual contributions on the ground deserves to be highlighted, as it once again exposes the largely transactional nature of these partnerships with Caracas, far removed from the anti-Western rhetoric these capitals usually deploy.

Conclusion: conditional aid facing an unprecedented tragedy

A fragile balance between compassion and strategic firmness

General License 60 illustrates the difficult equation Washington must navigate: responding with compassion to one of the worst natural disasters in Venezuela's recent history, while preserving the architecture of economic pressure built over nearly a decade against a government still considered illegitimate by much of the Western community.

This approach, however rigorous on principle, must never obscure the immediate humanitarian urgency of a Venezuelan population facing a human toll that keeps growing heavier day by day, well beyond the geopolitical considerations that have dominated this dossier for years.

Necessary vigilance in the months ahead

It will fall to the international community to closely monitor the concrete implementation of this humanitarian license in the coming months, as the exemption window is set to expire on October 23, 2026, a deadline that may require an extension if the scale of reconstruction proves as considerable as initial estimates suggest.

For the West, this dossier is a reminder of an unavoidable truth: firmness toward hostile regimes must never turn into indifference toward the civilian populations who pay the price, a balance Washington will need to keep carefully adjusting in the weeks ahead.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency note

Who I am and my acknowledged biases

I sign my pieces as Maxime Marquette, columnist-analyst for mad-m.ca. I hold a pro-Western editorial line, favoring continued strategic pressure on regimes aligned with China, Russia and Iran, while recognizing the absolute necessity of a swift, generous humanitarian response to natural disasters of this magnitude.

I do not claim to know the final human toll of this earthquake, which was still rising at the time of writing. My method is to cross-check multiple reputable journalistic and institutional sources before stating a fact, and to clearly separate my opinions, always flagged in italics, from established, sourced facts.

Sources

Primary sources

Venezuela Quake: US Lifts Sanctions, Death Toll Hits 589 — The Eastern Herald, June 27, 2026

Issuance of Venezuela-related General License — OFAC, U.S. Department of the Treasury, June 25, 2026

Secondary sources

Trump, Rubio pledge support as US mobilises $150 million for Venezuela quake relief — India Today, June 27, 2026

US Troops Race to Reopen Venezuela's Airport and Port for Quake Aid — The Rio Times, June 29, 2026

Rights Groups Demand End to Venezuela Sanctions as Earthquake Death Toll Passes 2,000 — Democracy Now, July 2, 2026

Venezuela: Earthquake Death Toll Rises, US SOUTHCOM Deploys Military Assets — Venezuelanalysis, June 26, 2026