A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 79 people, trapping residents under debris from collapsed buildings and forcing people to evacuate their homes as far as Bogotá. The ground moved. The buildings failed. Ordinary people paid the price.
Who Got Hit First
The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles, or 107 kilometers. The quake was also felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.
Local officials said at least 40 people were killed in the Risaralda region, where the hard-hit city of Pereira is located, and 27 people in the Valle del Cauca region, where Colombia’s third-biggest city, Cali, is located. At least three of those killed in Valle del Cauca were children, the governor said. Authorities also confirmed nine people were killed in Choco, two more in the Caldas region and a 73-year-old in the Antioquia region. Many more people across the country were injured.
The quake left cities across western Colombia — Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales — ravaged. Residents and search teams picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns about aftershocks. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit. That’s the real map here: not a neat administrative chart, but a spread of damage across communities where people now dig through wreckage while officials count the dead.
What People Said While the Ground Moved
Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city as buildings collapsed. He said, “My entire house shook. I’ve never lived through such a powerful earthquake.” He added, “We’re thanking God we’re alive.”
In Pereira, photos and videos published by local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling down on travelers taking shelter and screaming, and people running through rubble in a panic. Pereira’s mayor, Mauricio Salazar, told a local radio station that at least 18 people had died and that many more were trapped under “a massive quantity of collapsed buildings.”
In nearby Manizales, a city in the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia, one of the towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral collapsed and fell on the nave. Jorge Eduardo Rojas, the mayor of Manizales, asked residents to stay outside in case of aftershocks. Authorities in the rural state of Choco, the epicenter of the quake, reported injured people and damaged buildings in the capital, but provided few details.
In Cali, a city of 2 million people, Mayor Alejandro Eder said that residents were trapped in at least 19 buildings that had collapsed. Flights were suspended in the airports of Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira. The machinery of movement stopped fast. The people below had to wait.
What the Authorities Call Response
Colombia’s Geological Service said Monday that it had been “the highest magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade” and that it had been followed by two 2.8 and 4.8 magnitude aftershocks. Small earthquakes, known as temblores, are common in central and western Colombia, but those above 6.0 magnitude are rare. In 1999, a 6.2 magnitude quake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.
Colombia’s newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday that he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency in San José del Palmar following the earthquake. He said, “You are not alone. The state is present and taking action.” Response to the earthquake presents the first major challenge to de la Espriella, a Trump ally who was sworn in as president over the weekend.
Messages of support rolled in from leaders across the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X, “The Trump administration is closely monitoring the large earthquake that struck Colombia and stands ready to support the people of Colombia.” A number of countries offered aid, and the U.N. deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said, “we stand ready to help as needed.” The language is polished. The hierarchy stays intact. The people still have to survive the rubble.
The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people. At the same time the quake brought down buildings in Colombia, desperate families in Venezuela continued to search the ruins for the bodies of their loved ones. Across borders, the same pattern repeats: destruction for the many, statements and coordination for the few.