Another 1,500 people have been confirmed injured and over 200 are trapped in rubble, Speaker Jorge Rodríguez announced in a televised speech on Thursday evening, Swedish time.
According to the speaker, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez has visited the coastal areas that were hit hardest by the two earthquakes - which occurred on Thursday night.
"She is currently in the state of La Guaira, in the large disaster area," says Jorge Rodríguez, who is the brother of the president.
A man with dual Italian-Venezuelan citizenship is among the dead, Italy's Foreign Ministry announced.
There are no reports of injured Swedes, the press service at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs told TT on Thursday evening.
The magnitude of the first earthquake was measured at 7.2, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The second measured 7.5.
Housing collapsed
The quakes occurred within a minute at locations 45 kilometers apart off Morón on the coast of Venezuela. According to the USGS, the quakes occurred at depths of 22 and 10 kilometers, respectively.
"We call on our people to remain calm. We call for unity," Delcy Rodríguez said earlier in a short speech.
The earthquakes are among the most powerful to hit Venezuela in just over a century.
According to the USGS's formal assessment, for an earthquake of this magnitude, there is a risk of thousands of deaths.
Many buildings and homes in the capital Caracas and La Guaira slightly to the north have collapsed.
"Always major damage"
Björn Lund, senior lecturer in seismology at Uppsala University, compares the earthquakes to the one that occurred in Haiti in 2010, when over 200,000 people died.
"It is similar in size to the Haiti earthquake; it occurred in a very densely populated area and in a coastal area with soft rock that causes large movements of the earth's surface. I hope it will not be as bad. But with earthquakes that occur in densely populated areas, there is always major damage," he tells TT.
The United States is sending rescue workers and medical personnel to Venezuela and contributing $150 million to relief efforts. Countries including Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Mexico have also announced they are sending emergency aid, rescue workers and experts.
