Bogota. At least 288 deaths and more than 4 thousand injured is the toll so far from the earthquake that shook Colombia on August 10, reported yesterday the director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), David Tamayo.
In statements to the press, the official confirmed that the number of missing people is 379.
The 7.4 magnitude earthquake had the municipality of San José del Palmar as its epicenter, in the department of Chocó, southwestern Pacific, and also left 45,000 families affected and 12,504 homes destroyed.
The number of damaged houses, that is, those that suffered damage that can be repaired, the official revealed is 80,774, following the most recent reports delivered by teams of engineers who continue the work of reviewing and quantifying the effects of the earthquake.
From the government, President Abelardo de la Espriella visited Chocó to announce measures, such as the implementation of "a kind of Marshall Plan to recover the department, one of the most forgotten and depressed in the country."
To this proposal by President De La Espriella, the former Colombian president and opposition leader, Gustavo Petro, reacted in
Meanwhile, De La Espriella announced measures, despair is spreading on the ground because government aid is not materializing promptly, which is causing complaints among the victims who are going to spend five days living in shelters and with the uncertainty that tomorrow, on the fifth day of the earthquake, by protocol according to international standards, the rescue work for survivors will be suspended.
"The new president of Colombia is paying for his foolish refusal to cooperate with the transfer process initiated by the previous government. The result is that he lacks the information and capabilities that he urgently needs to respond (to the earthquake crisis)," published the prestigious British magazine The Economist, through X where it published a note on the devastating earthquake.
The truth is that announcements are made, decrees are issued and a social and economic emergency declared due to the disaster, but nothing materializes. De la Espriella has dedicated himself to fleeting visits to the territories affected by the earthquake, says a few “words of encouragement” and returns to Bogotá, which is also not his presidential office.
A group made invisible by the government, which focused aid on large urban centers, such as Cali and Pereira, undoubtedly the cities with the highest number of deaths, is the population displaced by the internal conflict.
“Colombia continues to host one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world, while continuing to respond to ongoing conflicts, migratory movements, phenomena related to climate change and natural disasters,” highlighted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from Geneva, Switzerland.
At the same press conference, spokesperson Eujun Byun highlighted that numerous localities affected by the earthquake host large displaced populations or those in need of international protection, including Pereira, Palmira, Armenia, Ibagué or Cali, the latter with more than 133 thousand people in that situation, she detailed.
