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Colombia Earthquake: Isolated Community Awaits State Aid Amidst Armed Group Presence
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Disasters & Emergencies

Colombia Earthquake: Isolated Community Awaits State Aid Amidst Armed Group Presence

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Six days after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, the remote Colombian community of La Encharca remains isolated and without basic services.
  • Residents face the consequences of the quake with limited access to electricity, water, and communication, compounded by the presence of illegal armed groups.
  • Volunteer efforts are providing initial aid, but community leaders emphasize the urgent need for state intervention and reconstruction materials.

Six days after a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia, the remote community of La Encharca, situated along the Suruco River in the Chocó municipality of Medio San Juan, reveals a starkly different side of the emergency: the plight of those far from urban centers. Residents grapple with the quake's aftermath without basic services and under the shadow of illegal armed groups.

"We are in a very difficult situation," John Freddy Ibarbo Mosquera, a community leader, told EFE, surveying damaged homes. La Encharca, accessible only by river, remains without electricity, potable water, or reliable communication. The region's dense jungle environment historically hosts groups like the Clan del Golfo and the National Liberation Army (ELN), a reality that complicates emergency response efforts.

Visible damage includes homes with deep cracks, fractured floors, and weakened structures, forcing many families to evacuate while awaiting aid that has yet to arrive. What little assistance has reached the community, markets, water, and medicine, has been delivered by volunteers and private citizens navigating the river, not by official state operations.

We are in a very difficult situation.

— John Freddy Ibarbo MosqueraA community leader in La Encharca described the dire circumstances faced by residents six days after the earthquake.

José Rutilio Rivas, a social leader supporting rural communities in Medio San Juan, highlighted the "invisibility" of the tragedy for these areas, as attention has focused on cities. "Rural communities are almost never visited, and they are the ones most impacted in these types of situations," he stated. Rivas stressed that reconstruction requires more than just food aid, with many homes needing cement and other materials to become habitable again.

The state's absence is not a new phenomenon for these communities, who have lived with isolation and lack of basic services for decades. The earthquake has merely exposed this long-standing reality. The seismic event has also instilled fear of aftershocks, leaving many families on edge and particularly affecting children, according to community leaders.

Rural communities are almost never visited, and they are the ones most impacted in these types of situations.

— José Rutilio RivasA social leader emphasized the neglect faced by rural areas in Colombia, particularly during emergencies.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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