Word: colombia
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...second cataclysm to strike Latin America in two months. In Mexico, the government of President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was still coping painfully with the aftermath of the Sept. 19 earthquake, which left as many as 20,000 dead and, by some estimates, up to 150,000 homeless. Colombia's volcanic catastrophe seemed especially poignant in a country that has been plagued since World War II by a seemingly endless series of man-made travails: civil war, leftist terrorism and battles with a powerful and entrenched drug mafia. Said Colombian President Belisario Betancur Cuartas as he personally directed rescue...
...international community was quick to respond to Colombia's agony. As President Reagan sent Betancur a message expressing his sympathy, the U.S. dispatched a dozen CH-47 Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters from Panama to take part in rescue operations. Public and private U.S. disaster relief swelled toward $1 million. In Geneva, the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported that twelve countries had contributed $1,250,000 worth of tents, generators, food, blankets and other essentials...
...news of the cataclysm spread, Colombia was stunned. President Betancur declared the 77 sq. mi. around the volcano a disaster zone. In Bogotá, long lines of blood donors formed outside the local Red Cross building; more than 10,000 pints were collected in less than 24 hours. Residents of the capital streamed to two major collection spots in the city bearing food, blankets, medicine and clothing. By Thursday morning a caravan of 300 trucks carrying thousands of tons of relief material was headed for Tolima department, a five-hour drive over narrow mountain roads...
Pledges of outside aid came just as quickly. Along with the U.S. Army rescue helicopters, Washington's Ambassador to Colombia Charles A. Gillespie released an immediate $25,000 to local authorities. Within 36 hours the first of three U.S. C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flew from Howard Air Force Base in Panama to a Colombian military airport at Palanquero bearing some 500 family-size tents. In Washington, Jay Morris, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that "we have been working around the clock to monitor and respond to the emergency requirements of the survivors." Administration officials...
...city, the local Colombian consul general, Roberto García Archila, was swamped with aid offers. Less than 24 hours after the eruption, an Avianca Boeing 727 left Miami International Airport laden with privately donated medical supplies. Meanwhile, Spanish-speaking ham-radio operators in Miami were relaying messages from Colombia to the Florida consulate, where hundreds of anxious Colombians kept a vigil, hoping for news of relatives and other loved ones in the danger zone...