The epicenter of the 7.4-magnitude earthquake on Monday in Colombia was in the area of San José del Palmar, an impoverished rural municipality in Chocó, near the Pacific Ocean.
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella declared his first national emergency and traveled to a new command post in Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, which has the largest population of Black Colombians.
“I will be at the forefront of this national emergency, traveling the country tirelessly to make the immediate decisions,” said De La Espriella, who took office on Friday.
There were at least 132 dead and 570 injured, according to the government’s latest death toll. Officials also estimated that at least 61 buildings had collapsed.
“The injured and those requiring priority medical attention are being transferred to Medellín,” De La Espriella said, adding the city had enough hospital capacity.
De La Espriella’s administration established the main command post in Bogotá, the country’s capital, and command posts in western Colombia.
De La Espriella’s team set up a command post in Armenia, the capital city of Quindío, famous for its coffee farms in the heart of the Andes mountains.
There was also a command post in Cali, the capital of salsa dancing, and where De La Espriella took his oath of office and delivered his first presidential speech.
In Pereira, the capital of Risaralda, known as the coffee axis, search-and-rescue teams responded to collapsed buildings.
In Manizales, a city in the coffee-growing region of Caldas, the historic Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary partially collapsed.
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