Saturday, August 15th 2026 - 01:08 UTC
De la Espriella said 90 tonnes of humanitarian aid had reached Pereira through the office of the first lady
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella on Friday described the situation in Pereira, capital of Risaralda department and one of the places worst hit by Monday's magnitude 7.4 earthquake in the west and center of the country, as “apocalyptic.”
“Walking through the center of Pereira, walking through the city, wrenches your heart. But Colombians are used to rising to the occasion in the face of adversity, and it is fair to say we have never had it easy. And believe me, this situation will not get the better of us,” he said after meeting local authorities.
The president said Pereira has recorded 94 dead, 259 injured and 260 missing, and put the number of people affected at 140,000, from 41,600 families. That last figure does not match the records of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit, which in its 6:30am update put the number affected across the whole country at 102,262 and in its afternoon revision raised it to 145,601, spread across 448 municipalities in fifteen departments.
