The earthquake that awoke Venezuela earlier this week had a wide variety of reactions among bloggers. After all the panic and the worries finally subsided, most of these bloggers shared different strategies to protect and prevent accidents during an earthquake. The importance of alternate media was evident, since mainstream media took too much time to inform or alert. This natural phenomenon also pointed out the contrast between the role of mainstream media led by the government and the private sector, which also meant a big fight between the government and opposition. While both sides tried to inform and contract each other, most of the warnings and recommendations came from Twitter, instant and text messages. La tempestad by Héctor Rattia and used with permission. La tempestad by Héctor Rattia and used with permission. In the end, the earthquake was the starting point of new discussions, demands, reflections, and also humorous expressions, which is something that has never been absent in any of this country’s events in the Venezuelan blogosphere. Luis Enrique Blanco, in his blog La Conciencia Ciudadana [es] points out the great importance of alternate media in this kind of crisis: … A las 5:00 a.m. yo, un pendejo cualquiera, estaba claro de que había ocurrido 15 minutos antes en la República. Bueno, El ministro El Aissami a las 5:30 a.m. conjuntamente con el Alcalde Jorge Rodríguez, casi una hora después, estaban esperando que FUNVISIS les confirmara el informe del sismo pero en su lugar se dedicaron a desacreditar la información que suministraba GLOBOVISION la cual esencialmente era la misma que yo había recibido de manera bien informal. ¿Que puede esperar un venezolano cuando los encargados de informar no lo hacen y en cambio se dedican a utilizar momentos importantes de alerta para cantar su canción revolucionaria? (…) No conformes con la metida de pata que los voceros del Gobierno Central habían ya protagonizado, casi prohibían faltar a clases alegando que, no existía peligro de réplica y esta se suscitó a las 10:30 a.m., afortunadamente sin hechos que lamentar. En fin, como el título dice, este round lo ganaron Twitter, Facebook y Messenger Live At 5:00 a.m., I, just another idiot, had a clear idea of what was going on 15 minutes before in our Republic. Well, the Minister, along with the Mayor, almost an hour later, were waiting for FUNVISIS (Venezuelan Seismic Investigation Foundation) to confirm the report of the earthquake and, in the meantime, they devoted themselves to discredit the information given by Globovision (a private channel network), which was, essentially, the same information I received in a very informal way. What can a Venezuelan hope for when people in charge of information don’t inform, but take moments of high alert to sing their revolutionary song? (…) Also, the government’s spokesman, not content enough with their faux pas, almost forbade missing class for this reason, saying that there was no danger of aftershocks… and there was one at 10:30 a.m., but nothing happened to anybody, fortunately. In the end, this round was won by Twitter, Facebook and Messenger Live. Daniel of Venezuela News and Views also writes about how this earthquake moved the government’s point of balance more than it did to the earth itself in his post Globovision Shakes Chavismo Early this Morning: There was a rather strong quake early this morning close to Caracas. Even in San Felipe I felt it enough to wake up. Fortunately it was very brief and thus no major damages reported or loss of life. But apparently there was a lot of loss of pride among chavismo. See, Globovision the 24 hours news channel did its work: they had staff at hand, they started inquiring, but no one was around to tell them what was happening. VTV was RE-transmitting the Chavez Sunday show, Alo Presidente. God forbid the wisdom words of the beloved leader would be interrupted to tell the audience that there had just been an earthquake. Besides they already knew about it: did they not feel it? Globovision then tried the next logical step, to ask the Venezuelan seismological thing, FUNVISIS. Nobody was attending. So Globovision went to a US specific site where indeed they found the quake, its magnitude and its epicenter.