(Bogotá) A section of mountain collapsed in eastern Colombia, without causing any casualties, and cut off – for at least a month – the main road axis with Ecuador, the president announced Thursday evening. Gustavo Petro.
“The only paved road that existed” between the south and the center of Colombia, the Pan-American which “connects us to South America” no longer exists, deplored Mr. Petro from the municipality of Rosas (South-West ), where several houses were swept away during this gigantic landslide that occurred overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
The authorities had evacuated 700 people as a precaution.
The transit of heavy goods vehicles will not be able to resume “for a month”, he said. He announced “emergency measures” such as an airlift to avoid shortages in the part isolated from the rest of the country where nearly a million Colombians live in the border towns of Pasto, Tumaco and Ipiales, the main border post with Ecuador.
To reach the center of the country, travelers can take an alternative route, known as the “trampoline of death” due to the narrowness of the road which hangs over cliffs for much of its 150 kilometres.
” The causes [du glissement de terrain] are uncertain: whether this is exclusively due to the amount of precipitation or whether there was some sort of movement of the tectonic plate,” Petro said.
Since the end of the year, Colombia has been experiencing an exceptionally intense rainy season. While it is difficult to establish a direct link between these rains and climate change, scientists often explain that global warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.