What Colombia's earthquake means for its fight against rebels and gangs | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. I'm Seely Hatton and today I'm. joined by William Marquez, Latin America. expert from BBC Mundo. William, Colombia. has suffered a devastating earthquake at. a pivotal time for the country. politically. Now, in a moment we'll talk. about challenges the country is facing. like rebel groups and drug gangs. But. first, just to focus on what's happening. in Colombia at this moment. Can you take. us through the devastation that the. country is facing in the earthquake.

region? >> Well, first of all, the earthquake was. felt everywhere in the country including. neighboring countries Venezuela and. Ecuador. But the most affected area is. the western part of the country. Chocó, primarily, which is in the Pacific, was. the epicenter of the earthquake. And. then other provincial capitals, mainly. Cali, the third largest city in the in. the country, and also the area that's. known as the coffee growing area of.

Colombia. Pereira, Armenia, Manizales. Those are the provincial capitals there. So, there are five provincial capitals. that are in a dire situation at the. moment. Primarily in Chocó, Quibdó, which is historically one of the poorest. regions of Colombia. And for decades it. has been affected by violence from the. paramilitary and guerrilla groups plus.

uh drug trafficking. And it's one of the. most forgotten regions of the country. It's a region of. enormous beauty, natural beauty, but. simply just forgotten. And we are not. getting too much information from them. at the moment. They. uh have reported 13 deads and uh about. 131 wounded, but thousands of people. affected. Uh but there's very little. information. The. communication, the mobile.

communication has has been shut down. There's no little electricity. In Cali, there's a lot more information. there from Cali. There's a. information of at least 40 collapsed. buildings, 5,000 dwellings that have. been affected. Several. dozen dead, more than 700 wounded, and a. lot of. people unaccounted for. So I suppose. that as time goes on, the death toll, unfortunately, will go up.

>> Wow. Okay, so. it's an interesting time as a journalist. then for you because you've got a dearth. of information in some parts and you're. getting information from others. I would. imagine the big cities it's easier to. get information from them. But there. have been a lot of stories circulating. on social media. Can you take us through. some of those accounts that that you've. come across, things that have stuck in. your mind? >> Well, one of the most dramatic ones is a. family in Pereira, sort of in the.

suburbs of the town of the city. And they posted a video. where you see the actual house shaking. and they miraculously are able to. abandon the house and you see how one of. the youngsters is almost losing his. balance as bricks are falling down and. the neighboring house is collapsing. There's sort of chimney is collapsing. and then they go inside again and see. the damage inside. The walls have fallen.

and the ceiling has fallen. And the. woman who. posted the video said that. all of that [snorts] property can be. replaced but life can't. But they. escaped with their lives. So she was. thankful about that. And that reminded. me because I I as a as a child I. remember at least four major earthquakes. in Colombia. And I remember one in. particular where the the whole floor was.

shaking. We were in the classroom and. everyone turned around at the same time. because they thought that the you know. the the lad next behind them was pushing. their desk. Until one of the boys just. stood up and said, "I think the earth is. shaking." And we all moved out and one. of them as we were just rushing out the. out the door. crashed into the wall because the. it was moving so much. So I I mean that. at a personal level it reminded me of. that. Another person wrote or actually.

spoke to BBC Mundo the Spanish. service of the BBC. >> [snorts]. >> saying in Pereira in the downtown area. is complete chaos. You know, there was. at least. one building that collapsed, traffic paralyzed, lot of. injured [snorts]. I mean damaged vehicles, there's. no electricity, they're trying to. collect some water,

but but I have to say that the. government has really moved swiftly to. try and. start its rescue mission. >> You bring our attention to the. government. I want to ask you about the. new president. He's just come into. office just a few days ago. >> Inaugurated on Friday. >> In Cali, the city that you that that you. mentioned, can you talk us through the. challenges he's facing at this moment? Who is he and and and how has he been.

navigating just the past 24 hours? >> So President Abelardo de la Espriella. came into office. with a right-wing agenda a strong hand. against the armed groups, against. the criminals, criminal gangs. Uh. this weekend alone, the government uh. uh announced that it had uh. >> [snorts]. >> uh struck. an alleged uh guerrilla um. uh leader and killed him.

Uh but then with this earthquake, that. entire agenda, that focus that he had on. what he was going to do has changed. His. mindset now and his focus now is. rightly so on the earthquake. >> William, tell us about these armed rebel. groups. How big a problem are they for. Colombia? >> Well, they've been a problem for. decades. There was a peace agreement.

uh that was signed in um. 2016. uh with the. largest rebel group, the FARC. Uh they disarmed. But there was a dissident faction. that went back into action. And they have been creating, you know, a. lot of the problems for the for for the. government and and society in general. there. There's also another group called the. ELN. The uh National Liberation Army.

And uh they operate primarily near the. border with Venezuela. Now, the. outgoing president or the last. president, uh President Petro, the. left-wing president of Colombia, he came. in with a plan of a total peace. But he wasn't really able to enact it. So, we have these uh. two major. uh guerrilla groups plus other.

minor ones. There's a uh. really really uh. grave situation with paramilitaries. operating in certain areas, and they are. in conflict also with the guerrillas. over territory. uh for the cultivation of of cocoa. >> [snorts]. >> And uh also. uh there are the uh criminal gangs like. the. Clan del Golfo, the Golfo clan,

which is uh in the Gulf of uh between. [snorts] Panama and and Colombia. There's a There's an area. uh which is very unruly. And uh they control that area as well. And they control drug trafficking there. as well. So, there's a tremendous situation with. rural violence in Colombia. Uh the lack of presence of the of the. government. And there's also. there's an insecurity situation in the.

country. That doesn't have to do with. necessarily to do with with with the. armed conflict, but just basically. criminal gangs operating in the city, you know, the stealing, killing, and. that sort of thing. >> Mhm. Okay, so you've told us about the. gangs and the rebel groups and and where. they stand at the moment. Just a layer. the situation of posed by the earthquake. on top of that, how will that complicate the presence of. those gangs, those groups complicate the.

uh administering of aid, uh making sure. that the Chocó region in particular is. is built up again? Can you take us. through the the the challenges that. those two things might might pose? >> The um rebels and the paramilitaries. pose a challenge directly in Chocó. And so, getting the aid there is going to be. difficult. because they control a lot control a lot. of the the access to it and uh the.

access to the cities and the the towns. And uh and and those areas. And they're. heavily armed. So, that's very. difficult. The other problem. is that there's been looting and. vandalism. So, many of these cities have. declared curfews. So, that also. interferes in the rescue operations. because obviously, you want to work. through the night. But then again, not. everyone can go out and volunteers can't.

go, uh, and and try and help because you. need a special permit to circulate. Uh, Cali, for example, had a, uh, curfew. between, I think it was 6:00 p.m. and. and 5:00 a.m. So, uh, so that also makes it very. difficult. And, you know, these are. phenomena that occur, uh, a lot in in. Colombia when there are disasters, that. there's looting and vandalism. >> William Márquez, Latin America expert. from BBC Mundo. I'm Celia Hatton. If you.

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