The Spanish Government has said it cannot account for 164 of its citizens in Colombia after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the west of the country on August 10, though it has no record of Spanish nationals killed or injured.
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares said consular staff had reached every Spaniard known to have been in Colombia apart from those 164. He asked Spaniards in the country and their relatives to contact the embassy in Bogotá or the consulate general to confirm their whereabouts.
Albares, who was speaking at a press conference in Ceuta, said the Spanish development agency AECID was at Colombia’s disposal. He said Spain was also still assisting Venezuela, where he put the number of Spanish dead at 56 with a further 136 unaccounted for after the June quakes.
The European Union has activated its crisis consular assistance mechanism, which allows citizens of member states with no diplomatic presence in Colombia to seek evacuation help through other EU missions.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that the bloc was funding the response, including through the Red Cross, and had passed on condolences to her Colombian counterpart. “The EU has mobilised Copernicus, our satellite service,” she wrote.
Brussels has not put a figure on its contribution. The US State Department said it was committing $15.5 million (€13.4 million) for shelter, food, protection and damage assessments.
Colombian authorities had confirmed more than 150 deaths and over 570 injuries by August 11, and the figures were expected to climb as rescue teams worked into a second day in Cali, Pereira and Manizales.
The epicentre was at San José del Palmar, in the Pacific department of Chocó, roughly 400km west of Bogotá. The Colombian Geological Service described it as the strongest tremor recorded in the country in a decade.
President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office days before the disaster, declared a national emergency and ordered soldiers into the worst-hit cities after reports of looting. Cali and Pereira imposed overnight curfews.
Colombia is among Latin America’s largest recipients of EU humanitarian aid, having received around €456 million since 1994, with an initial allocation of €17 million for 2026.
