Farmers from Valle del Cauca denounce state abandonment in rural areas after an earthquake in Colombia

Published at: 18/08/2026 12:21 PM

Farmers from Valle del Cauca are clamoring for assistance after the 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia last Monday, while in the rural areas of Ansermanuevo and Cairo white flags are waving with the inscription “Help, SOS” to make visible an emergency they consider unattended.

The inhabitants of both localities denounce that no authority has managed to evaluate structural damage and that humanitarian aid is insufficient, because according to testimonies collected in the sector, the only assistance comes from drivers who deliver food spontaneously, when the real priority is zinc sheets to replace roofs and the assessment of engineers to determine if the houses can be inhabited again, Telesur reported.

At the Parador La Ribera, the owner Johanna Castañeda and her five family members marked the words “Danger” and “Caution” with red paint on the walls of a structure about to collapse, after they had to evacuate running to a religious image located a few meters from the building, where they remained embraced until the tremor stopped, Telesur reported.

Castañeda said that his family is temporarily sheltering in Cartago, although he returns daily to monitor their belongings, and he demanded that the authorities visit the rural land because so far no one has come to the area to treat the victims.

From the local administration, the mayor in charge of Cairo, Carlos Alberto Correa, acknowledged that institutional capacity is overwhelmed by priority attention to urban areas, where severe damage has also occurred, and admitted that the rural census has not yet been carried out, despite the fact that humanitarian aid is being dispatched and structural evaluations are being planned as soon as possible.

While agricultural communities remain paralyzed, their productive and daily activities were suspended without a clear horizon of recovery.

Mazo News Team