标签： South America

Just days after Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella took office, a catastrophic 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, leaving the nation grappling with one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s recent history. Now, as rescue teams wrap up their search for trapped survivors in collapsed buildings, the South American nation turns to the daunting task of rebuilding communities shattered by the quake that has already claimed at least 285 lives and upended the lives of more than 100,000 people.\n\nAccording to official government data, the disaster damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of residential properties, alongside thousands of schools, healthcare centers, and community gathering spaces across more than 400 municipalities. Four major urban centers — Cali, Pereira, Manizales, and Quibdo — bore the brunt of the damage, leaving thousands of residents homeless.\n\nFor 38-year-old Ebert Jonathan Morales, staying at a government-run shelter in Cali, the disaster wiped out nearly everything his family owned. “There is no place to live, we lost everything,” Morales told the Associated Press. He is one of more than 102,000 people displaced by the quake, which has also left nearly 4,000 people injured. While official government data puts the number of missing people in the hundreds, independent private sector analysts estimate that thousands remain unaccounted for. Morales explained that he and his wife and four children will remain at the shelter until state support arrives, saying “The earthquake destroyed several neighborhoods in the city. Many houses were damaged, and buildings collapsed. We are going to stay here until the government gives us some help, some support.”\n\nSimilar stories of displacement echo across affected regions. Olga Castro, a mother of five who is currently staying with a neighbor after losing her home, said “At least we survived, but right now we are practically on the street because we don’t have a home anymore.” In many remote and hard-to-reach areas affected by the quake, official government aid has not yet arrived, leaving residents to rely on volunteer efforts and mutual aid from neighboring communities.\n\nThe disaster has presented an immediate critical test for the new president, who was inaugurated just 48 hours before the earthquake hit. Speaking Thursday, de la Espriella acknowledged the unprecedented complexity of the crisis, announcing a national reconstruction plan that pairs government resources with private sector investment, alongside direct cash subsidies for homeless families. “We will not overcome this tragedy alone as a government,” he said. “We need the private sector to rebuild Colombia together.” The president added that all national and international donations raised for disaster response will be allocated to reconstructing critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools, residential buildings, roads, and airports.\n\nEngineering experts caution that reconstruction requires careful, systematic planning before any major work can begin. Yezid Alvarado Vargas, a construction engineering professor at Bogota’s Javeriana University, noted that a full technical assessment is required to determine which existing structures are safe to occupy, which can be repaired, and which must be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. “Before even discussing reconstruction, we must guarantee temporary housing, food, healthcare, continuity of basic services and economic support for families who lost their homes or livelihoods,” Alvarado said.\n\nLocal authorities have repurposed public infrastructure including schools, parks, and government buildings as emergency shelters, distributing tents, mattresses, and food to displaced residents. In other hardest-hit areas, residents have set up improvised street-side shelters, while hundreds of volunteer groups continue to deliver aid to the most vulnerable communities, particularly those in isolated regions.\n\nMaría Mercedes Liévano, country director for Save the Children Colombia, explained that many of the most affected regions were already facing systemic crises before the earthquake. “These are isolated, neglected territories, historically lacking in institutional support, already plagued by violence, and now they are hit by an earthquake of this magnitude,” she said. “It’s a crisis on top of a crisis, leaving the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability.” Her organization highlighted particularly severe conditions in Buenaventura, Colombia’s largest Pacific port, and Chocó department, the epicenter of the quake.\n\nAs of Friday, national and international humanitarian aid continues to flow into the country. Multiple foreign governments including Peru, China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates have pledged tons of emergency supplies and disaster relief. President de la Espriella is scheduled to travel to Quibdo in Chocó and Pereira on Friday to inspect relief efforts and monitor aid distribution, as Colombia begins the long process of recovery from the most powerful earthquake to hit the country this century.

In the wake of two catastrophic earthquakes that struck across northern South America, leaving a trail of destroyed infrastructure, fractured communities and lost lives, one seasoned photojournalist has opened up about the ethical and emotional weight of capturing disaster on camera. After two decades documenting breaking news across the region for the Associated Press, Fernando Vergara stepped back this week to share his reflections on working through physical risk and emotional distress, and the delicate balance journalists must strike when bearing witness to human tragedy.

Vergara spoke to AP Thursday while working at a Bogota aid collection center, where donations are being sorted and shipped to survivors of the August 10 earthquake that centered near Pereira, Colombia. He drew direct comparisons between the destruction he documented in Pereira and the damage he witnessed following the late-June earthquakes that hit Venezuela’s northern coastal region.

According to Vergara, the impact of the Venezuelan earthquakes was far more severe. Multiple high-rise apartment buildings collapsed in the heavily populated La Guaira state, driving a far higher death toll than the Colombian event. Photographs from the region show crumpled concrete structures, rescue teams picking through rubble pile by pile, and heartbroken relatives grieving the loss of family members. Vergara recalled the visceral, unshakable details of working in the disaster zone: streets choked with fine dust, the pervasive stench of decomposing bodies lingering in the thick, hot air, and rescue crews working around the clock under brutal, nearly impossible conditions.

In Pereira, by contrast, most damaged structures were low-rise residential buildings between one and three stories tall. Even so, Vergara documented harrowing rescue efforts, including the emotional moment 24-year-old survivor Daniela Largos Sanchez was pulled alive from collapsed rubble the day after the earthquake.

For the veteran photographer, moments like that are the ones he prioritizes capturing amid widespread chaos and grief. In his reflections shared from the earthquake zone, Vergara broke down his approach to ethical photojournalism in the wake of disaster.

“Compared to the earthquake in Colombia, the one in Venezuela was a bit stronger, considering the losses. Venezuela had many tall buildings. A lot of people were living in apartment buildings, and the number of deaths was much higher than in Colombia. Recently in Pereira, the number of deaths are lower. It remains dramatic, but the buildings there were a bit shorter. The damaged houses were one to three stories tall, compared to Venezuela, where the buildings were much, much taller,” Vergara explained.

Describing conditions on the ground in La Guaira, he said: “What I witnessed in Venezuela, walking through the streets in La Guaira, the smell of rot was overwhelming, the dust in the air and the heat made the rescue of those trapped under the rubble much more dramatic.”

Central to Vergara’s practice is a core commitment to respecting the privacy and dignity of people experiencing their worst possible moments. “What is the photograph that I, as a reporter, seek in an earthquake or in a situation of such calamity? It’s important not to disrespect the victims’ families with my photographs. On the other hand, it’s about showing the situation with great sensitivity as it unfolds and to convey a message to people with my photographs,” he said.

Amid the widespread sorrow and loss that define disaster zones, Vergara actively seeks out and captures moments of hope and joy, most of all the miracle of a live rescue. “The most important message is the rescue of a person alive during an earthquake. Seeing someone alive brings immense joy. When a rescue team, firefighters, civil defense, or even volunteers rescue a person alive, everyone embraces with happiness, and that is the happiness I seek to capture with a photograph in an earthquake,” he added.

Weeks after a pair of destructive earthquakes killed hundreds and displaced thousands across neighboring Venezuela, Colombia has been struck by its own deadly seismic event that has left communities reeling and humanitarian organizations scrambling to deliver life-saving aid across a vast, hard-to-reach affected area.

The 7.4 magnitude quake, which struck Monday, shook a huge stretch of western Colombia, shaking densely populated urban hubs including Cali and Pereira and cutting through remote, mountainous terrain in the department of Chocó. As of Thursday evening, official government data put the confirmed death toll above 280, with thousands more injured and nearly 11,000 residential structures completely destroyed. Search-and-rescue teams have pulled almost 350 survivors from the rubble, but hundreds of people remain unaccounted for, leaving families waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has pledged a large-scale, coordinated governmental response to the disaster. However, with urgent needs stretching across hundreds of miles of varied terrain, international and local aid organizations are set to play critical roles in delivering shelter, essential supplies, and long-term economic support to displaced and impacted families.

Unlike earthquake response efforts in Venezuela, where the interim government’s chaotic and under-resourced relief work faced widespread public criticism, Colombia’s more robust democratic and civic institutions are expected to streamline coordination between state and non-state actors. Even so, the far larger geographic scope of the Colombian disaster has created unique logistical barriers that challenge even well-established institutional frameworks.

“Institutional capacity does not remove the humanitarian need,” explained Catalina Vargas, country director for the global humanitarian organization CARE in Colombia. “The most severely affected area, Chocó, is also one of the most isolated and underserved parts of the country, so access remains the binding constraint regardless of the strength of national institutions.”

As relief efforts ramp up, disaster response leaders are urging donors to give cash rather than unsolicited physical goods, to give on-the-ground groups maximum flexibility to meet shifting needs. Abe Diaz, head of disaster relief at tech and retail giant Amazon, which is delivering pre-requested supplies to partner organizations on the ground, noted that unneeded donated goods create unnecessary burdens for overstretched response teams.

“Unrequested product donations overwhelm communities and force responders to divert resources from life-saving work just to sort and store unwanted supplies,” Diaz said.

To support potential donors, a wide range of vetted international and local organizations currently active in relief efforts have opened fundraising channels:

### U.S.-based organizations operating on the ground
– **All Hands and Hearts**: The group has already delivered critical search-and-rescue equipment including jackhammers and pickaxes to the Pereira fire department, alongside blankets and rehydration supplies for displaced families.
– **CARE**: With decades of established programming in Colombia, the group’s immediate response focuses on cash-based food assistance, emergency supply kits, and protection and emotional support for impacted households.
– **Direct Relief**: The global health-focused organization is funding local medical response teams and preparing to ship requested prescription medications and essential healthcare supplies to treatment facilities across the affected region.
– **GEM**: Working alongside local partner groups, GEM is distributing essential survival kits containing food, clean drinking water, and hygiene products.
– **Operation Blessing**: The faith-based organization’s initial relief work centers on delivering food, water, and solar lanterns to people displaced from their homes.
– **Save the Children**: With more than 40 years of work in Colombian communities, the group has already launched psychosocial support services and established multiple safe, child-friendly spaces in impacted areas.
– **World Central Kitchen**: The food security nonprofit is providing fresh meals and clean water to displaced people, first responders, and volunteers, including in isolated mountain communities that are hard for other groups to reach.

### High-profile benefit concert planned for earthquake relief
A host of Latin music’s biggest stars, including Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi, Chayanne, Feid, and Jay Wheeler, will headline an international benefit concert for both Colombia and Venezuela earthquake relief on Sunday, August 16 at 6 p.m. EDT, hosted at Miami’s Kaseya Center. The concert will be broadcast live across multiple platforms, including Univision, ViX, WAPA, TelevisaUnivision radio stations, iHeartLatino, and Venevision Play for viewers in Venezuela. Viewers can donate during the broadcast by scanning an on-screen QR code, texting UNIDOS to 707070, or visiting the Univision.org website. All proceeds will go to five relief organizations: All Hands and Hearts, CARE, GEM, TECHO, and World Central Kitchen.

### Colombia-based organizations accepting international donations
– **Abaco Colombia**: An association of 26 food banks operating across the country, the group is distributing emergency food rations to impacted families across all affected regions, and accepts online donations.
– **Cruz Roja Colombiana (Colombian Red Cross)**: Local teams are leading search-and-rescue operations, providing emergency medical and psychosocial care, and meeting other critical needs, with online donation options available.
– **Fundación Solidaridad por Colombia**: This community-focused foundation supports youth programming, nutrition access, and community development, and is partnering with GEM to deliver relief supplies and food to displaced people in Pereira and surrounding areas. It accepts donations via PayPal.
– **Fundación Semillas de Oportunidades**: Based in Quibdó, the heart of impacted Chocó department, the foundation supports youth through art and sports programming, and is currently aiding affected families of young people across the region, accepting donations via PayPal.
– **Manos Visibles**: A network of organizations focused on advancing racial and territorial equity, the group is collaborating with a local trade school to restore at least 100 damaged homes in the port city of Buenaventura, with online donation options available.
– **Presentes Corporation**: A 43-year-old Colombian organization focused on building community resilience, the group is partnering with Miami-based nonprofit Give to Colombia to facilitate cross-border donations from U.S. supporters through its *Colombia Se Levanta (Colombia Rises)* fund, which accepts online donations.
– **Refugio Huellas de Amor (Pereira) and Huellitas Callejeras Barranquilla**: Both animal welfare organizations are supporting impacted and rescued animals in disaster zones, and accept donations via PayPal.

This reporting was contributed by Associated Press staff writer Megan Janetsky from Mexico City. AP’s coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP maintains sole editorial control over all content.

For 15-year-old Deivi Delfín, the nightmare of earthquakes never seems to end. Just months after surviving a catastrophic pair of back-to-back seismic events that destroyed their home and killed three immediate family members in Venezuela, he and his 17-year-old brother Winder thought they had found safety by joining their father in Colombia. Barely three days after arriving, disaster struck again: one of the strongest earthquakes in Colombia’s modern history shook their new city, leaving the brothers already broken by trauma reeling from another terrifying shake.

The Delfín brothers’ tragedy began on June 24, when two massive earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit just 39 seconds apart along Venezuela’s Caribbean coast. Their hometown of La Guaira, the region worst impacted by the tremors, would see entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, with the Venezuelan government reporting a death toll that exceeded 6,300 people to date. To this day, no official count of missing people has been released.

On that fateful evening, the two teenagers had been heading back from a day trip to a nearby Caribbean beach. Winder had begged his mother Yusmani to let their 10-year-old brother Moissés join them, but the young boy had been grounded for misbehavior and stayed home with their mother and grandmother Carmen. When the ground began to roll violently, the brothers clung to each other and shut their eyes, certain they would not survive. When the shaking stopped, a thick cloud of dust and debris obscured everything around them.

When they reached their 12-story apartment building, all that remained was a mountain of tangled concrete: their mother, grandmother, and 10-year-old brother were trapped beneath the ruins. “My world came crashing down,” Winder recalled of the moment he realized what had happened. Their father Deivid, who had already been working in Cali for the family, spent three frantic days searching for his two surviving sons after rushing back to Venezuela, while the teenagers joined rescue efforts, sleeping on the street and going without food for three days straight.

Deivid warned his teenage sons that crawling through the unstable rubble put their own lives at grave risk, but the boys refused to stand down. Smaller and more agile than adult rescue workers, they squeezed through narrow gaps between collapsed concrete slabs, navigating by the faint light of cell phones and handheld torches to flag potential locations of their trapped family to official crews. It was during these weeks of grueling, heart-wrenching searching that both boys say they lost their childhood forever. “I don’t feel like a child anymore,” Deivi told BBC Mundo in an interview.

Slowly, the boys pulled small fragments of their old life from the wreckage: a pair of Moissés’s shorts, their mother’s well-worn Bible, an unfinished handwritten shopping list. One day, Deivi spotted a scrap of patterned fabric he recognized as his grandmother’s floral skirt, leading rescuers to recover her body first. Days later, Winder was the first to identify his mother’s remains: a plastic bag she had been using to dye her hair when the boys left for the beach was still wrapped around her head. When rescue crews lifted the heavy concrete slab that pinned Yusmani’s body down, they made a devastating discovery: little Moissés was still clinging to his mother’s hand. At the sight, Deivid collapsed, overwhelmed with grief. “When his little head fell into my hands… I broke down,” he shared.

After burying their three lost family members, the brothers traveled to Cali to start a new life with their father, who had already settled in a modest working-class neighborhood on the northeastern outskirts of the Colombian city. The boys say they hold onto hope that they can build a quiet life focused on work and study, one that would make their late mother proud. But that fragile new start was shaken to its core just days after they arrived, when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake—Colombia’s strongest seismic event in a century—struck the country, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds more missing across the nation. Cali was once again among the areas hardest hit by the shaking.

Deivi was asleep when the tremor began, and at first thought the gentle swaying was just a nightmare. When the shaking grew more violent, he scrambled out of bed and ran outside, followed immediately by Winder. The brothers clung to a metal street gate as the ground moved beneath them, waiting out the worst of the tremor. Their father, who had been out running errands when the shaking started, immediately ran back home to check on his sons, only to find the house empty. A neighbor told him she had seen the boys run out to the street, and after searching through nearby blocks, he found them waiting outside the barbershop where he works. It was the traumatized teenagers who had to calm their panicking father: “Dad, stay calm. We’ve been through this before,” they told him.

Today, the boys say the memory of the Venezuela quake continues to haunt them, and the second shake in Colombia has only deepened their trauma. But even after unthinkable loss and repeated disaster, they hold onto small hopes for the future, clinging to each other as they rebuild their lives from scratch.