“Forgotten territory of the State”: after the earthquake in Colombia, Choco faces its old wounds

In San José del Palmar, near the epicenter of the earthquake that hit Colombia, a road blocked by a landslide is enough to measure the extent of the isolation. A hospital collapsed, infrastructure was damaged and dozens of injured people had to be treated with limited medical resources.

With at least 265 dead and hundreds missing, the 7.4 magnitude earthquake, whose epicenter was located in Choco, a poor department on Colombia’s Pacific coast, is the deadliest of the beginning of this century in Colombia. In this region crossed by rivers and covered in tropical forest, measuring the true scale of the disaster can take much longer than elsewhere in the country.

Rural communities are scattered, communications are precarious and certain localities remain difficult to access. “The Choco and, more generally, the Pacific are regions which are characterized by a weak presence of the State and its institutions,” Leyner Palacios, human rights defender in the Choco, explains to France 24.

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“We still don’t know what really happened.”

Some communities are eight to twelve hours from urban centers. In other cases, the journey can take three to four days going up the rivers, explains Leyner Palacios. “We still don’t know what really happened in these communities,” he laments.

It is difficult to establish a reliable assessment in this department where many homes are built from wood or sheet metal. “The situation is critical in Choco, where the number of hospitals is much lower than in the rest of the country and where 80 to 90% of health centers are currently affected,” Jhon Castaneda, director of ActionAid programs in Colombia, explains to France 24.

Despite its coastline, the department remains difficult to access by sea and finds itself largely isolated from the rest of the country, which extends delays and makes the delivery of humanitarian aid more expensive. To reach San José del Palmar, “it was necessary to set up heliports and spaces to transport aid,” underlines Jhon Castaneda.

After the earthquake, photographer and documentarian Jeison Riascos wanted to document the situation. He left Medellin to join Quibdo, capital of the department of Choco. Unable to take the plane, he made the journey by road, despite the risk of landslides and the tunnels that line the route.

“We knew we had to tell and show what was happening on the ground,” he told France 24. For him, this mission also took on a historical dimension: “We, the Chocoanos, had to tell ourselves what was happening to us.”

Hours after the earthquake, on August 10, newly elected Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella visited Choco. He promised to assess the needs of all affected municipalities and assured that the financial resources necessary to manage the emergency were already available.

“The Choco has a special place in my heart, because it is a department that has been abandoned. And I, as a lawyer, have a strong sense of justice. An injustice has been committed against the Choco for many years and it is time for it to stop,” said the head of state.

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Neighbors, first aid

A visit welcomed with caution in the department, where residents have already seen promises multiply during previous crises. “We have lived from hope to hope,” recalls Leyner Palacios, for whom the challenge is now to “transform announcements into concrete actions”.

While waiting for an institutional response, first aid often comes from the residents themselves. In the streets of Quibdo, neighbors, relatives and simple volunteers organized themselves to help the victims, without having any experience in relief.

Jeison Riascos notably remembers the image of a group of civilians standing on rubble. “You could see on their faces that they didn’t really know what to do, but they wanted to help,” he says. For him, this scene summarizes a large part of what has happened since the earthquake: “The neighbor, the rescuer, the friend come together to go in search of their loved ones or the people they want to help.”

Coming to Quibdo to tell the story of the disaster, Jeison Riascos also had to find his family. The building that had collapsed in front of his house was a building he had seen for much of his life. “I couldn’t believe what I saw,” he recalls. When he arrived, he first looked for his family, checked that his home and that of his mother were intact, before starting his work. “I was torn between the emotion of what was happening and that of seeing my family safe and sound,” he says.

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When the earthquake revives old wounds

For human rights defender Leyner Palacios, it is impossible to reduce the tragedy to a natural disaster. The earthquake struck a territory already marked by lack of infrastructure, isolation and decades of institutional abandonment. “Nature has struck Choco, a territory already hard hit by the absence of the State,” he summarizes.

He cites in particular the case of Pogue, a community in Bojaya declared at risk twelve years ago and whose relocation has still not been completed, according to him. A situation that goes far beyond just the earthquake. “The earthquake is not predictable. But many of these natural disasters, linked for example to the obstruction or overflow of rivers, to floods, can be anticipated,” he underlines.

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For Jeison Riascos, it’s not about competing with other territories for attention. What he fears is that Choco will fall back into oblivion when the emergency has left the front pages and the television news. “Choco is almost not on the radar of many people who could have influence on the department through their institutional functions,” he says.

However, for residents, the crisis does not end when the cameras start again. Another step then begins: finding shelter for those who have lost their homes, guaranteeing access to food, reestablishing communications and dealing with the psychological consequences of a trauma which also affects children. Local organizations are already looking to install antennas in isolated areas to allow families to reunite with their loved ones.

This article was adapted from Spanish by Barbara Gabel. The original can be found here.