Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at earthquake recovery efforts in Colombia, ongoing violence in the Middle East, and the persecution of Russia’s only antiwar party.

 Devastation in Colombia

Search and rescue efforts continued across Colombia on Tuesday, as the country reels from a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake that has left upward of 200 people dead and thousands more unaccounted for.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at earthquake recovery efforts in Colombia, ongoing violence in the Middle East, and the persecution of Russia’s only antiwar party.

 Devastation in Colombia

Search and rescue efforts continued across Colombia on Tuesday, as the country reels from a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake that has left upward of 200 people dead and thousands more unaccounted for.

The earthquake struck on Monday at 7:34 a.m. local time, with its epicenter near San José del Palmar, a small mountain town in the country’s western Chocó region. The quake was the most powerful one to hit the country in a decade, according to the Colombian Geological Service, which recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday. Major cities such as Cali, Quibdo, and Pereira sustained serious damage, and an estimated 5,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

As first responders dig through the rubble for an estimated 3,000 missing people, the disaster is far from over. Recovery poses the first major challenge for Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was inaugurated on Friday. Following a Monday night visit to Quibdo, the capital city of Chocó, the leader traveled to Pereira, a city in the Andes east of Chocó, to assess the situation at the “forefront of the emergency” and “coordinate all the capacities of the State to respond quickly and decisively to the affected communities.”

The areas surrounding the epicenter are some of Colombia’s poorest and most rural regions. They were already facing intense violence from armed groups as well as rural neglect before the earthquake hit. Now, patchy communication systems........

© Foreign Policy