Rescue workers struggled on Saturday to reach remote villages in Venezuela's Andean mountains cut off by torrential rains and landslides that have killed at least 26 people in nearly a week. Military helicopters and navy vessels this week evacuated more than 15,000 stranded tourists and residents from the coastal states near Caracas after mudslides and swollen rivers blocked roads, destroyed bridges and swept away homes. At least 18 people died in flooding and land slips in Caracas and neighboring areas. The weather cleared up along the coast on Saturday, but heavy rains lashed Tachira and Merida states in the western mountains near Colombia. President Hugo Chavez, touring a camp for people left homeless by the storms, said at least one child was washed away in Tachira and seven more bodies have been recovered so far in Merida state. Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a key crude supplier to the United States, says the storms and floods have not affected its oil production or shipments. The rains have stirred fears about a repeat of a 1999 disaster when tens of thousands were buried alive or swept out to sea after storms turned hillsides into rivers of mud and rock in Vargas State on the Caribbean coast. In neighboring Colombia, torrential rains that started Friday evening caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 11 people and forced 22,000 from their houses in the northeastern part of the country, authorities said on Saturday. "Our initial estimate is that at least 11 people have died and four have been injured," said a police spokesman.
