Dr. Christopher Sabatini

speaker

41 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 25 Jun

Dr. Christopher Sabatini’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Today with David McCullagh · Venezuela earthquake: fatal back-to-back earthquakes in Caracas · 25 Jun 2026 podcast

And that's about 200% of Venezuela's GDP, a huge debt burden that will have to be resolved as quickly as possible now, but a new debt burden in some ways.

It is going to be massive.

And again, building on the already collapsed infrastructure, and we're only getting a peek at what has happened, as your previous report said, the collapse in buildings, and especially Caracas is built in a valley, and a lot of the favelas spill up on the mountainside.

We haven't seen what we're seeing right now, a collapsing of the taller buildings in Caracas Center and just slightly outside.

I suspect when you leave the capital and you get into these favelas, you're going to see a lot more destruction of already pretty ramshackle built housing that I'm sure was severely ill prepared for any earthquake of this consequence.

No, we're not talking Chile, for example, has made great advances in earthquake preparation in terms of regulations governing new builds and the like and reinforcements.

Venezuela doesn't have that.

So it is really the depth of this disaster can in part be traced to politics and lack of regulation and preparation.

This was obviously already beginning to be on the table.

We saw discussions with the opposition for elections, but there's a long way to go.

Chatham House recently finished a report on all the steps and reforms will be necessary for elections and even to broaden investment beyond the oil and gas sector, which has been the main sector that's been opened up now.

But a lot more has to be done.

This obviously.

In baseball, loving Venezuela throws a huge curveball to the government and to the population.

And the government was hoping that the 8 million or so Venezuelans who had fled would return quickly to help rebuild the economy.

I don't think they're going to do that now.

Or if they do, it will only be humanitarian support.

and immediate sort of repairs, which is going to have to take a priority which is not the same as long-term economic building.

The only hope is that this tragedy and the human consequences and fallout will bring together the opposition and the government, perhaps with international mediation, to form some sort of consensus agenda to move the country forward.

If there's a bright spot in all of this,

Showing 21–40 of 41 · page 2 of 3