• Relief efforts in Venezuela's earthquake disaster zone are transitioning to focus on clearing rubble and providing assistance to those affected.
• The confirmed death toll from the earthquakes has risen to 3,685, with active search and recovery operations largely complete but bodies still being recovered from the rubble.
• International rescue teams are beginning to withdraw from Venezuela as the focus shifts towards dignified reconstruction, with volunteers continuing to search for missing individuals in the rubble.

Two weeks after deadly earthquakes struck Venezuela, relief efforts in the disaster zone are entering a new phase as the confirmed death toll continues to rise.

Responders said aid workers are now focusing on clearing rubble and providing assistance to those affected.

The confirmed death toll stood at 3,685 on Tuesday, up by 150 in 24 hours, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said in a post on X.

Active search and recovery operations are now considered largely complete, but bodies are still being pulled from the rubble.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday and travelled to La Guaira in the north of the country, the region worst hit by the disaster.

Fletcher said aid workers were now looking at how to coordinate the next phase of the response, including the provision of food, water, shelter and medical support.

Many international rescue teams have already left Venezuela.

"This is not giving up, but a necessary transition towards a dignified reconstruction," the Mexican rescue team Topos México wrote on X.

It said the withdrawal was justified by the end of the victims' biological survival window. It also cited the immediate danger of further building collapses and the need to use heavy equipment in collapsed buildings.

Volunteers, however, continued to search through the rubble.

Relatives of people still missing have urged authorities to continue the search until their loved ones are found, alive or dead, so they can be laid to rest, the newspaper El Nacional reported.

Earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude struck Venezuela on June 24, followed by more than a thousand weaker aftershocks. Numerous buildings have been reduced to rubble, particularly in the coastal state of La Guaira.

Experts say that after two weeks following an earthquake, the chances of finding survivors are extremely low.