The Secretary of State for Communities is following the situation in Tejarias with concern.

Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities Paulo Cafofo said this Sunday that he is following the situation in Teherias, Venezuela, where two Portuguese have died due to heavy rains, with “great concern”.

Paulo Cafofo, through the social network Twitter, is guaranteed to be in “permanent contact” with the Portuguese embassy and consulates in Venezuela, “assessing what the Portuguese and Portuguese descendants are like.”

Consulate sources told Lusa news agency today that two Portuguese people, a man and a woman, died in Tejerias, 70km southwest of Caracas, Venezuela, due to heavy rains that have affected the Venezuelan state of Aragua in recent hours.

Honorary Consul of Portugal in Los Tekes, Pedro Gonçalves, said that two Portuguese merchants, a man and a woman, died under a stream of water and mud.

“At the moment, the death of two Portuguese (…) has been confirmed. I am going to Teherias, but access is closed, in any case, I will try to get there,” Pedro Gonçalves told Luce.

According to the honorary consul, one of the injured Portuguese, a man, died while trying to protect the equipment of the trading establishment. A native of Cañas (Madeira), the owner of the El Palmar hotel, who was dragged along the water, also died.

On the other hand, he explained that it rained at dawn and that two rivers, the Tui and the Grande, joined together, “destroying all the houses.”

According to the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology of Venezuela, last night there were heavy rains with electrical discharges in at least 13 of the 24 regions of the country.

The rains affected Caracas (capital area) and the Venezuelan states of Merida, Falcon, Yaracuy, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, Anzoategui, Sucre, Monagas, Delta Amacuro, Bolivar and Amazonas.