A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia early Monday morning, killing at least 132 people, injuring more than 570, and triggering a national disaster declaration. The quake hit at 07:34 local time with its epicentre near San José del Palmar, a small municipality in the Chocó department — a Pacific-coast province in Colombia's lush, mountainous west — at a depth of roughly 100 kilometres. Colombia's geological service described it as the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in over a decade and the worst of the 21st century. Authorities warned the death toll is likely to rise as rescue teams continue searching through collapsed buildings.

The hardest-hit city was Pereira, in Colombia's celebrated coffee-growing region about 55 kilometres from the epicentre, where at least 40 people died in the metropolitan area alone and 65 buildings collapsed. Videos showed at least one multi-storey structure crumbling in Plaza Bolívar, the city's central square, sending clouds of dust across an area crowded with morning pedestrians. A curfew was imposed in parts of the city overnight. In Cali — a major city roughly 160 kilometres south of Pereira — 32 buildings collapsed, including a partial collapse of the Hospital Universitario del Valle, one of the region's key medical facilities. At least five intensive care patients were reported trapped under rubble there, and seven large health institutions were closed due to structural damage. Deaths and injuries were also recorded in Manizales, Medellín, Quibdó, and across the Chocó and Valle del Cauca regions. Tremors were felt in neighbouring Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. Civil aviation authorities suspended operations at seven airports, including those in Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Buenaventura.

Engineering experts have pointed to widespread construction practices as a key factor in the scale of the disaster. Research conducted alongside Colombian universities at a laboratory in Switzerland tested concrete walls built to typical Colombian standards, and the results were stark: many residential and commercial buildings in the country use thin concrete walls — often just seven to ten centimetres thick — with only a single, brittle layer of steel mesh reinforcement. Under earthquake stress, rather than developing many small, distributed cracks that absorb energy gradually, these walls tend to fracture catastrophically at a single point, causing rapid structural failure. A 2018 survey of buildings in Cali found 90% had walls with a single reinforcement layer. Experts note this is not unique to Colombia; similar construction practices are widespread across Latin America and have historically been linked to building collapses in earthquakes elsewhere, including Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011.

The disaster arrived at a politically charged moment. President Abelardo de la Espriella — described by Brazilian and Colombian media as a far-right politician — had been in office for less than 72 hours when the earthquake struck, having been inaugurated in Cali on Friday in a ceremony notably held outside the capital Bogotá, reflecting his stated commitment to decentralising Colombia's government. He was in Medellín as part of a post-inauguration regional tour when the quake hit, and quickly travelled to Bogotá to coordinate the emergency response before heading to Quibdó. He declared a national disaster situation, unlocking special budgetary powers to redirect funds to relief efforts. International support began arriving swiftly: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was monitoring the situation and ready to assist, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc's Copernicus satellite system had been deployed to support rescue operations, and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele offered personnel and equipment.

The earthquake adds to a grim recent pattern across South America. It struck less than two months after twin earthquakes devastated northern Venezuela, killing more than 6,300 people and damaging or destroying tens of thousands of buildings. While scientists caution it is too early to draw a direct connection between the two events, some research suggests that seismic stress transferred along one fault can trigger activity on nearby faults. The mayor of San José del Palmar — the village closest to the epicentre, whose 6,000 residents miraculously escaped without deaths despite severely damaged roads — underscored the vulnerability of the affected region: his municipality operates on an annual disaster-management budget of just $32 million. Rescue operations are continuing across multiple departments as Colombia faces what may be its most serious natural disaster in a generation.