Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares confirmed on 25 June that 68 Spanish nationals remain uncontactable after two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela. Speaking en route to the Dominican Republic, Albares urged Spaniards in Venezuela to call the embassy’s emergency numbers and said an Airbus A330 carrying 57 UME rescuers will depart Madrid the same evening. Spain’s consular crisis team has activated its rapid-response protocol, which includes locating citizens via the Registro de Viajeros and coordinating with local Spanish associations. The embassy building in Caracas sustained moderate damage but remains operational. Multinational firms with expatriate staff in Venezuela have been advised to cross-check internal rosters against the ministry’s missing-persons list. Standard corporate-travel insurance may exclude evacuation flights during natural disasters, so risk managers should review policy riders. The incident underscores the importance of registering even short-term business trips with consular services—a step often neglected when employees travel on Schengen passports that allow 90-day stays without visas. In Spain, the news has reignited debate over mandatory traveller-tracking for companies sending staff to high-risk destinations. Albares also noted that AECID’s logistics hub in Panama is ready to dispatch medical supplies, illustrating Spain’s increasing use of regional pre-positioning to shorten humanitarian-response times.
Source: El País
