Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez says nearly 600 people are now confirmed dead after two huge earthquakes struck the country. Experts have said the death toll could continue to rise.

We ask Luis Fajardo of BBC Monitoring what this disaster could mean for the country’s future, at a time of great political and economic turmoil.

President Donald Trump – who ordered the removal of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro at the start of this year – has pledged American assistance in the wake of the earthquakes, saying “we will be there for our new and great friends”. But there are questions about what effect the devastation could have on the redevelopment and oil industry investment that President Trump promised when US forces seized Maduro.

Millions of poverty-stricken Venezuelans were already in dire need of aid before the quakes, according to humanitarian groups. And there are growing calls for Maduro’s successor – Delcy Rodriguez – to hold fair and free elections.

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00:00 Introduction
00:13 Earthquake devastation in Venezuela
01:39 Venezuela’s economic crisis
02:51 Trump and Venezuelan politics after Maduro
04:41 What aid does Venezuela need?
05:39 How could the earthquakes affect Venezuela’s economic recovery?
07:37 Calls for fair Venezuelan elections

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