Colombia Earthquake Leaves Hundreds Dead and Sparks Political Controversy
8 sources across 6 countries
Who reported this
- G1
- Folha de S.Paulo
- El Espectador
- El Tiempo
- La Tercera
- France 24
- El Pais
- Reuters
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, killing nearly 290 people and injuring over 4,000. The tremor, which lasted between 90 seconds and two minutes, had its epicenter in San José del Palmar, Chocó, and affected 11 to 13 of the country's 32 departments. Significant destruction was reported in cities including Pereira, Cali, Manizales, and Quibdó, with reports of over 127,000 damaged homes and 197 collapsed buildings. Search and rescue operations continued a week later, though officials noted that the chances of finding survivors have decreased.
The disaster occurred just three days after the inauguration of President Abelardo de la Espriella. The new administration declared a state of public calamity to expedite state procedures and hiring. However, the government's response has become a point of contention. The administration initially refused international rescue teams from several nations, accepting help only from the United States, Israel, Ecuador, and El Salvador. While the Colombian Foreign Minister stated that selections were based on technical capacity, the President of Mexico claimed that bureaucratic hurdles blocked Mexican military brigades.
Outlets with a center-left lean frame the event as a failure of management and a sign of ideological rigidity, suggesting the disaster exposed early cracks in the new government. In contrast, center-right outlets focus on the scale of the physical destruction and the resilience of medical personnel and first responders. Center outlets report on the event by balancing the humanitarian toll with the political scrutiny surrounding the administration's handling of international aid.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- Frames the disaster as a catalyst that revealed the ideological biases and management failures of the new administration.
- Centre
- Reports focus on the balance between the humanitarian crisis and the political scrutiny of the new president's aid decisions.
- Centre-right
- Emphasizes the magnitude of the destruction and the efforts of emergency and medical personnel.
Sources
- Centre-left El Espectador: Earthquake in Pereira: "a millimeter from death"
- Centre-left El Espectador: Earthquake in Colombia: the first cracks of the government of Abelardo de la Espriella
- Centre-left El Espectador: How to face the emotional impact after an earthquake?
- Centre-left El Pais: Colombians in Spain mobilize after the earthquake: “I feel a lot of helplessness being on the other side”
- Centre-right El Tiempo: The hands of medical personnel that hold a health system hit by the earthquake
- Centre-right El Tiempo: The 90 seconds that changed Colombia on August 10: the chronicle of how a country discovered it was not a tremor but an earthquake
- Centre Folha de S.Paulo: Tremor in Colombia exposes ideological face of Espriella in his 1st week in office
- Centre France 24: One week after the earthquake, Colombia continues search for missing, without much hope
- Centre-left G1: Magnitude 7.4 earthquake causes destruction in Colombia and kills more than 290 people
- Centre-right La Tercera: Colombia lowers deaths to nearly 287 and raises injured to nearly 4,150 from the earthquake
- Centre Reuters: Search teams comb rubble in Colombia nearly a week after quake as aid effort expands - Reuters
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.