The governor of Chocó, a department on Colombia’s Pacific coast, has turned to social media to seek international support following a powerful earthquake that struck the region last month. In a video shared online, Governor Nubia Carolina Córdoba addressed viewers in five languages—Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese—asking for continued solidarity and help with the recovery effort, under the message “Together for reconstruction.”
The magnitude-7.4 quake hit on August 10, with its epicenter near the town of San José del Palmar in Chocó. The tremor triggered emergency response protocols across the country, sending rescue teams to search for people trapped under debris and prompting the creation of collection centers to gather donations for the hardest-hit communities. Images from the departmental capital, Quibdó, showed extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Chocó is one of Colombia’s poorest and most isolated regions, making disaster recovery especially challenging and dependent on outside support. By appealing directly in multiple languages, the governor appears to be aiming her message beyond Colombia’s borders, seeking attention and resources from the broader international community as reconstruction efforts continue not only in Chocó but also in nearby Antioquia, where tons of building materials have already been mobilized for rebuilding homes.
Read the full original story at El Tiempo for more details.
Source: Gobernadora del Chocó pide ayuda en inglés, francés, italiano, portugués y español tras terremoto en Colombia (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Naoki Sato, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).