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

(2001, August 8-9-10, 1993 —No. 7,056)

• As it passed through Venezuela, on Saturday, August 7, 1993, Tropical Storm Bret, with winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, left 174 people dead, thousands injured and nearly 4,000 victims who lost their homes in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and the then Vargas Department today La Guaira.
• Seven days after the storm, the victims of Caracas, who obtained shelter in precarious conditions in Fort Tiuna, were evicted by orders of the then Minister of Defense, Vice Admiral Radamés Muñoz León, and Colonel José Sifontes, in charge of emergency relief.
• For the failed State, led by the inefficient President of the Republic Ramón J. Velásquez, there were no resources aimed at solving the situation of the victims of this natural disaster. And this was reflected in 2001 on September 9: “Living under a bridge would be the worst thing that would happen to a person. Many families were left homeless, without water, without bed and without food...”.
• They were left like this: “More than 3 thousand (3,000) families in various sectors of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas were totally ruined due to the overflow of streams in the face of the cyclone that hit our coasts.”
• In the Vengas sector of the Pan-American Highway, landslides blocked many houses and left dozens of families in mourning. Homes were also buried in La Vega, El Valle, El Cementerio and Petare.
• On the Petare-Guarenas Old Highway, more than 75 people were reported dead and 2,000 injured.
• Stormy winds emptied 339 mm (13.35 inches) of torrential downpours over Caracas and Miranda in less than 10 hours, leaving more than 177 dead, thousands injured and 3,000 injured in Caracas alone.
• The graphs show the moment when two men who were buried manage to make it out alive under the mud and the rubble.

Context:

• The contradictions and immoralities existing in that society of accomplices were exposed in the immediate assistance given to the political and financial class in the bankruptcy of 18 banking institutions from 1993 to 1994, compared to the absolute abandonment to which the victims of the natural disaster caused by Storm Bret were condemned.
• That year, the failed government of the incompetent Ramón J. Velásquez, faced with the storm of the banking scam, disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid to help a small group of bankers who caused the crisis.
• To assist and replace the thousands of victims in decent living conditions, President Velásquez did not order the necessary funds required.
• The eloquent graphic of the photographer Jorge Tortoza (assassinated by opposition assassins in the April 2002 coup) captured the reality of the humanitarian disaster caused by the Government. Here you can see how the victims were left on the street, living under bridges or on makeshift ranches in the open.
• The victims of this natural catastrophe, of considerable magnitude, were virtually left to live without State aid in the open air, under bridges.
• To solve the bank embezzlement that shook the very foundations of the Venezuelan State's finances, Ramón J. Velásquez and, later, Rafael Caldera II, handed over 6 billion U$D in financial aid to bankers who were fugitive from justice.
• The vast majority of these white-collar criminals fled the country and hundreds of thousands of savers were ruined, also damaged by fraud committed in the shadow of the interests of those who exercised economic power in the dark corridors of Banco Latino and 17 banking institutions that collapsed in effect dominoes.
• For the victims of Tropical Storm Bret, there is no newspaper account or historical record of humanitarian aid, decent housing provided, since they literally lived outside.

Mazo News Team