The president of Chile, José Antonio Kast, announced this Monday his support for Colombia after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that shook much of the country and left at least 100 dead. The Chilean head of state has made available the seismic knowledge of the Chilean emergency teams, which was evident in the work carried out more than a month ago in the rescues following the double earthquake in Venezuela.
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“All our solidarity with the Colombian people after the strong earthquake that affected the western part of the country. Chile knows the pain and challenge left by earthquakes. We are available to support whatever Colombia needs,” the Chilean president posted through his account on X.
All our solidarity with the Colombian people after the strong earthquake that affected the western part of the country. Chile knows the pain and challenge left by earthquakes. We are available to support whatever Colombia needs.
— José Antonio Kast Rist (@PresidenteKast) August 10, 2026
Kast visited Colombia last Friday to attend the presidential inauguration of Abelardo de la Espriella, one of his main allies in the region. The ceremony was held in Cali, one of the cities most affected by the earthquake of this day.
The earthquake, which occurred at 7:34 local time, had its epicenter in the town of San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, at a depth of 82 kilometers, according to the Colombian Geological Service (SGC).
In Quibdó, the capital of Chocó and the town closest to the epicenter, authorities reported injured people and severe damage to buildings, but the earthquake was also strongly felt in several cities in the west and center of the country with structural damage in Pereira, Manizales, and Cali.
At least seven Colombian airports suffered damage from the earthquake, reported the Civil Aeronautics (Aerocivil).
Chile has a long history with earthquakes. The most powerful earthquake in world history was recorded in the south of the country, in the city of Valdivia, in May 1960, with a magnitude of 9.5. The last major earthquake that shook the South American country occurred in February 2010 and reached a magnitude of 8.8. These milestones marked Chilean society, which for decades worked on improving the quality of its constructions and its management in this type of disaster.
The Chilean experience in Venezuela
After the earthquakes that occurred in Caracas at the end of last June, the Chilean government organized the sending of three flights with humanitarian aid and deployed rescue teams in the Venezuelan capital to support the search for missing persons and people trapped under the rubble. The work of the Chileans also focused on La Guaira, the area with the most victims after the double earthquake.
The work of the Chileans in Venezuela became known with the case of Hernán Gil Flores, a man who survived after eight days under the rubble of a building. The rescue of the trapped man involved units from several countries but had the Chilean representatives as the protagonists. Víctor Torres Fuentes, a volunteer from the Chilean Firefighters Search and Rescue Group, was the one who held Gil Flores until his extraction. “Many of the maneuvers we applied there have no precedent, although the strategy was very similar to that carried out in the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile [August 2010]. We had to be very adaptable,” Torres explained in an interview with EL PAÍS.
Chilean aid in Venezuela left some important political consequences, as it allowed an initial rapprochement between the Kast government and the Venezuelan administration of acting president Delcy Rodríguez. Santiago and Caracas had almost a year with broken diplomatic relations, a break that ended last July 30, when it was agreed to reactivate consular ties.
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