Strong quake rocks Venezuela but little damage reported

7.3 temblor was the largest to hit Venezuela since 1900

CARACAS, Venezuela — A powerful earthquake shook Venezuela’s northeastern coast on Tuesday, forcing residents in the capital to evacuate buildings and interrupting a pro-government rally in support of controversial economic reforms.

The 7.3 quake was the largest to strike Venezuela since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But at a depth of some 76 miles it appeared to have caused only limited damage even near its epicenter a few miles off the sparsely populated Cariaco peninsula stretching into the eastern Caribbean.

In Cumana, the biggest city near the quake’s center, supermarket shelves came crashing down. At a shopping center, a woman caught in the panic of people rushing out of the building fell on an escalator and injured herself.

In downtown Caracas, concrete from the top floors of the unfinished Tower of David skyscraper fell to the sidewalk, forcing firefighters to close off traffic. A block away, children wearing surgical masks stretched their neck toward the 620-foot building after having fled a nearby foundation for poor children suffering from cancer.

“We felt something strong and they told everyone to run,” said Marisela Lopez, who was at the foundation with her 7-year-old daughter when the quake struck.

Construction of the Tower of David began in 1990 as a symbol to the OPEC nation’s ambitions of becoming a regional finance center. But it was abandoned after a banking crisis and in the past two decades of socialist rule has become a symbol of urban blight, having been occupied by squatters until 2015.

The quake was felt as far away as Colombia’s capital of Bogota, where authorities briefly closed the international airport to inspect for runway damage.

The confusing moments after the quake were captured live on state television as Diosdado Cabello, the head of the allpowerful constitutional assembly, was delivering a speech at a march in support of the socialist government’s recent package of reforms to rescue an economy beset by hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

A similar-sized quake in the same area left dozens dead in 1997.