On Wednesday, the Mexican rescue brigade “Los Topos” arrived in the city of Cali to join the search and rescue operations for people trapped under the rubble, following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia last Monday and has claimed the lives of more than two hundred people.
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The rescue group, led by Héctor Méndez, arrived in Colombia from Venezuela, where they had been for 41 days after the two powerful earthquakes in La Guaira on June 24 that caused more than 6,300 deaths. In Cali, the rescuers were welcomed by Mayor Alejandro Eder.
“We were in Venezuela for 41 days and decided to come here instead of going to Mexico as soon as we saw what was happening. We left our work in Venezuela, which was focused on recovering the dead, to join this great effort to come and rescue our brothers and sisters,” Méndez told the press.
Cali, the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, is among the cities most affected by the earthquake, with nearly one hundred deaths and dozens of residential and commercial buildings collapsed or severely damaged. Pereira, the capital of the Risaralda department, also has a high number of victims and people trapped.
#Colombia | The 7.4-magnitude earthquake has renewed attention on how natural disasters disproportionately affect Colombia’s most vulnerable communities.
From Armero in 1985 to the 1999 Coffee Region earthquake, inequality, precarious housing and institutional failures have… pic.twitter.com/MgBPqz622M
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) August 11, 2026
“This is an extraordinary situation, and I ask everyone working on this to make an effort to overcome this period of feeling like victims. We are not victims; we are media workers, we are firefighters, we are soldiers, we are police officers, and we are volunteers,” Méndez added, standing alongside Mayor Eder.
According to the Colombian Association of Capital Cities (Asocapitales), the earthquake has left 190 people dead and 1,679 injured in the country’s capital cities. The breakdown indicates 95 deaths in Cali, 81 in Pereira, 9 in Quibdó (Chocó), and 5 in Manizales (Caldas). Regarding injuries, Cali has 999; Pereira, 278; Armenia, 174; Quibdó, 116; and Manizales, 112.
Asocapitales also reported 222 people missing—180 in Cali, 37 in Pereira, and 5 in Quibdó—and 243 collapsed structures, while search and rescue teams continue active operations.
These figures differ from those released by Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who placed the death toll at 181. Regional authorities, for their part, raise the count to approximately 240 dead, with an undetermined number of missing persons.
The Topos Tlatelolco brigade was created in September 1985, when a group of volunteer citizens began search and rescue operations in the rubble of the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that devastated Mexico City. Since then, the group has participated in relief operations in various countries.
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