Colombia's Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake Kills at Least 132 People and Damages More Than 1,500 Buildings

The death toll from Monday's magnitude 7.4 earthquake in western and central Colombia has reached at least 132, with 570 injured, according to the tally the Colombian Association of Capital Cities submitted at 7:00 p.m. local time. Authorities have said the figure is provisional. Newly inaugurated President Abelardo De La Espriella earlier put the toll at 111 and said more than 1,600 buildings were damaged.

Rescue teams and civilians are still pulling people from rubble in Cali, where the mayor said 188 people are unaccounted for. The quake struck cities across the west of the country, including Pereira, Quibdó, Cali and Manizales. More than a dozen health centres and a larger number of schools were damaged, which complicates both the medical response and the shelter capacity available to displaced residents.

Colombia is an oil and coal exporter and the world's largest producer of mild arabica coffee, and the affected departments lie close to the coffee-growing region around Risaralda and Caldas. No confirmed damage to export terminals or major producing assets has been reported so far. The economic effect of an event like this usually comes through damage to roads, bridges and electricity rather than damage to the resource itself.

The fiscal timing matters. A disaster of this size affects a government sworn in only recently, and reconstruction spending will compete with an already committed budget. Colombia's sovereign borrowing costs, and how quickly the government turns to emergency financing, will show whether the state absorbs the cost itself or adds it to its debt.