Colombia Earthquake: 164 Dead, Curfew Imposed in Cali

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake, the strongest Colombia has recorded this century, struck the west of the country on Monday just after 7:30 a.m. local time. By Tuesday the death toll had climbed to at least 164. President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office only days earlier, declared a state of emergency and personally took charge of the government’s response. For Belgrade and European capitals, this is the first test of Colombia’s new administration, the same one whose inauguration was followed only last weekend, and the second devastating earthquake to hit this part of Latin America in under two months.

The epicenter was near San Jose del Palmar in the Choco department, west of Bogota, in one of the country’s poorest and least accessible regions. The quake originated at a depth of about 110 kilometers. The US Geological Survey traces the cause to movement along a deep fault zone within the Nazca tectonic plate. The tremor was felt across Colombia, including the capital, and was also registered in neighboring Ecuador and in Panama.

By Tuesday, authorities had confirmed more than 570 injuries. Casualty figures arrived in waves by department, as rescue teams reached buried buildings:

• Cali, the country’s third-largest city, more than 85 dead
• Pereira, in the Risaralda department, 66 dead
• Choco, the department closest to the epicenter, 13 dead
• Caldas, two dead; Antioquia, one person, aged 73

Hospital in Cali: 600 Patients Treated in the Street

In Cali, a city of about 2.2 million people, several upper floors of one of the city’s hospitals collapsed, including wards used for pediatric care. Some patients remained trapped in the rubble, while about 600 were treated in a street covered in debris, hospital director Irene Torres Castro told Caracol television.

Rescue teams, joined by police, the army and volunteers, worked through the night with excavators and bare hands. Volunteers formed human chains, stopping every few minutes to listen for sounds beneath the concrete. Carmen Jasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident who joined one of the teams, described on Monday afternoon how her group had pulled seven people from a collapsed building, while four people and a dog remained trapped.

A short while ago we could hear scratching, but now we hear nothing. We still believe the dog is alive and that we can get those people out. We need people with poles and shovels, the more people who help, the better.

On Monday evening the president spoke of 188 people listed as missing in Cali. That number remained on Tuesday the main reason authorities are warning the final toll will rise above what has been announced.

Why Was the Quake So Devastating?

A depth of 110 kilometers would normally soften the damage on the surface, but the 7.4 magnitude and the population density of western Colombia canceled out that advantage. The quake struck the heart of the country’s coffee-growing region and its Pacific port belt, a corridor of densely built high-rises, while Choco, where the epicenter lay, is largely accessible only by boat or plane. Because of that, authorities will not have a full picture of the damage in rural municipalities for days; the interior minister said more than twenty municipalities were affected.

The Colombian Geological Survey also recorded two aftershocks, magnitude 2.8 and 4.8. According to authorities, 61 buildings collapsed and 1,575 homes were damaged, after an initial estimate had put the figure at around 1,500 structures. In Manizales, one of the towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral cracked and fell onto the nave, and in Pereira, video verified by Reuters showed the airport terminal swaying as pieces of ceiling fell on passengers.

Curfew, Army Deployment and Six Airports Closed

Authorities imposed a curfew on Monday in Cali and Pereira. After reports of looting, the president announced that 1,000 security personnel would be deployed to Cali by dawn. Hospitals in five cities were placed on red alert, and at least six local airports halted operations: Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira. All scheduled professional football matches were postponed.

De la Espriella declared the state of emergency on the third day of his term, to speed up approval of relief funds, and announced a tour of the affected areas.

We will not leave people on their own. They are in our hearts, and we will dedicate ourselves to them with all our resolve.

Addressing residents of the affected areas, he also said:

You are not alone. The state is present, and it is acting.

Aid From Washington and Brussels

The United States announced $15.5 million in emergency aid. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was closely following the situation and stood ready to support the people of Colombia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had activated its Copernicus satellite service, which supplies rescue services with imagery of the scale of the damage. France, Mexico, Ecuador and Israel also offered assistance.

For Colombia, this is the worst seismic disaster since 1999, when a magnitude 6.2 earthquake near the city of Armenia, in the same coffee-plantation belt, killed more than 1,100 people. For the region, it is the second blow in two months: in late June, two consecutive earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela killed more than 6,300 people, and families there were still searching for the bodies of loved ones in the rubble on Monday, even as buildings in Colombia were collapsing.

A diplomatic channel to Bogota opened quickly on both sides of the Atlantic, but the scale of aid required will depend on what rescuers can reach in the next two days, while pulling survivors from the concrete is still possible.