Published at: 22/07/2026 09:00 PM

(Diario de Caracas, 2001 and El Siglo, September 7- 8 - 9 and 10)

• On Sunday, September 6, 1987, at 1 p.m., one of the largest floods in Venezuela occurred. This was the catastrophe of the overflow of the El Limón River, in the state of Aragua, which left a legacy of nearly a thousand dead, 7,000 injured and hundreds missing. Part of the urban areas of Maracay disappeared. Several communities surrounding that capital of Aragüeña were left under the mud.
• A few hours earlier, the equivalent of two months of rain (180 mm) fell on the Ocumare de la Costa and Maracay mountains, headwaters and springs of the basin of that river, the equivalent of two months of rain (180 mm) in less than four hours. What began as a day of rest on the beach ended in a day of national mourning.
• Back home, thousands of seasonal workers were trapped on the road, victims of the unexpected landslide. Eight kilometers of the road disappeared, 400 vehicles were walled up under its rubble, including buses, vans and cars. Hundreds of people ended up trapped inside them. Others, who tried to flee, drowned when they were swept away by the current. To this day, there is a long list of missing persons.
• At 11:00 at night, the waters reached the neighborhoods of Caña de Azúcar, Mata Seca and El Progreso, which were completely destroyed. Under the flood of immense stones, sand and trees lay the communities of La Candelaria, Los Rausseos, Arias Blanco and Valle Verde.
• La Guamita and Los Apamates Park disappeared from the map and were reduced to rubble.

The newspaper evidence that recorded the tragedy was as follows:

• Diario de Caracas (09-09-87): Three days after the landslide, people are still on the street without shelter. There are 7 thousand victims and about 1 thousand dead, which are deducted by the number of vehicles and buses buried on the Ocumare de la Costa road. The graphic shows survivors on the street trying to find their missing family members and save their belongings.
• El Siglo (08-09-87): “... Along the 8 km of road leading to Ocumare de la Costa, more than 400 vehicles are estimated to be covered up by mud... the number of people killed is growing alarmingly... forensic doctors and the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ) are working to identify the bodies rescued... for three days the pilots of the Venezuelan Air Force evacuated, in helicopters, more than 2,500 trapped people in the disaster zone.
• El Siglo (24-09-87): 18 days after the tragedy, she reported: “People live in terror on the banks of rivers and streams.”
• El Nacional (09-09-87): “What happened on Sunday night in different areas of Maracay and on the road that connects this city with Ocumare de la Costa was described as a national tragedy... the official death toll is estimated to exceed 200, not counting the missing, whose number is above 500...”
• September 9: Three days after the incident, the private secretary of the President of the Republic, Blanca Ibáñez, showed up at the scene of the tragedy wearing Generala's Army uniform, with her name stamped on it, receiving military greetings and the high honors of that high rank.
• Faced with the outrage against the dignity of the military uniform played by Mrs. Ibáñez, her long-time supporter, Henry Ramos Allup, head of the Parliamentary Fraction for Democratic Action (AD), once again declared: “Nobody touches Blanca”, referring to the powerful secretary of Jaime Lusinchi.
• Although she did not have a military inauguration to hold that rank, Mrs. Blanca Alida Ibanez Piña was the one who decided on military promotions, appointed and removed ministers and even expelled the First Lady of the Republic, Gladys Castillo de Lusinchi, from the presidential residence, La Casona; she also intervened so that an interview conducted with Dr. Castillo by the journalist Nelson Hippolite Ortega was not published in El Universal.
• In the midst of this tragedy, which by that date constituted the largest flood affecting Venezuela, the victims were left living on the banks of rivers and streams, the survivors received only government palliatives to be forgotten without a decent housing plan, aid to restore their lives and recover, in part, everything lost in less than six hours of heavy rains in the mountains of Henry Pittier Park.

Mazo News Team