A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday morning, killing at least 69 people in Pereira and triggering widespread structural collapses across Cali and the Chocó department, where regional officials reported severe building damage and injuries following the seismic event.
Casualties and Structural Collapses Mount in Pereira and Cali
The earthquake struck in the early morning hours at a depth of roughly 100 kilometers, with its epicenter located near San José del Palmar in the western Chocó department along the Pacific coast, according to geological services in the United States and Colombia. While initial reports from the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) measured the initial magnitude at 6.6 at a depth of 79 kilometers, the Colombian geological service subsequently revised the magnitude upward to 7.4.
The human toll was concentrated heavily in Pereira, located in the nation’s tourist coffee region, where the mayor confirmed at least 69 deaths. The situation is critical, the mayor of Pereira, Mauricio Salazar, declared in an interview with Lapresse.
Further south in Cali, the country’s third-largest city, at least 20 structures collapsed, leaving residents trapped beneath the rubble. The mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, appealed on the platform X for emergency rescue squads to be dispatched from the capital of Bogotá and from Medellín.
Emergency Response and Infrastructure Disruption Across the Pacific Coast
In the hardest-hit rural and coastal zones, the earthquake cut off power and telecommunications. Martha Estrada, a 66-year-old resident in the coffee region, told Lapresse that there is neither electricity nor mobile network and described the tremor as strong, very strong enough to cause household items to crash to the ground. In the impoverished Chocó department, the governor reported injuries and heavy structural damage in the departmental capital of Quibdó.
We have just suffered a major earthquake in the department of Choco. We fear aftershocks. Although the epicenter was located near San Jose del Palmar, we are counting the injured and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo. Nubia Carolina Córdoba-Curi, Governor of Chocó
Civil aviation authorities suspended operations at six airports across western Colombia, including facilities in the Chocó and the coffee region, pending engineering inspections of structural integrity. Meanwhile, no tsunami alert was issued.
Regional Tremors and International Solidarity Following the Disaster
The violent ground motion extended far beyond Colombia’s borders, sending shockwaves into Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela, where residents reported swinging lamps in Maracaibo. In Bogotá, office towers and residential buildings were evacuated as residents rushed into the streets in pyjamas amid blaring sirens. Mayor Carlos Galán reported no major structural failures in the capital, noting only superficial wall cracks.
Newly inaugurated Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella announced via social media that he was returning to Bogotá and take personal charge of the emergency response. To Colombians who are living through difficult times today, I want to say this: you are not alone, he wrote.
The disaster places renewed focus on the region’s intense tectonic volatility along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Nazca and Caribbean plates subduct beneath the South American plate—striking just weeks after a devastating double earthquake killed more than 6,000 people in neighboring Venezuela on June 24.
