MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De la Espriella gives the first earthquake toll and entrusts Colombia to Jesus Christ

The toll, as of 12:30 local time, is preliminary

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella reported 111 dead and 87 injured on Monday from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the west and center of the country, in an address containing extensive religious references. “I entrust our country to the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said after chairing a meeting of the unified command post set up at the National Disaster Risk Management Unit.

The toll, as of 12:30 local time, is preliminary. The president listed 1,575 homes damaged and 37 destroyed, 61 buildings collapsed, 18 health centers, 52 schools and 17 community centers damaged, 18 roads affected and six airports out of service. The priority, he said, is rescuing people trapped under rubble. The government agreed to declare a national disaster situation, to be signed during the day.

De la Espriella announced he would personally lead the response and issue updates every two or three hours. He will travel to Quibdó, capital of Chocó, with the health and defense ministers, while Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara Restrepo heads to the coffee-growing region and Transport Minister Elsa Noguera to Valle del Cauca. Command posts have been set up in Bogotá, Armenia and Quibdó. The foreign ministry will coordinate international cooperation, and the president said the country's allies had offered assistance.

“Today all Colombians, without ideological distinctions, have to unite behind a single cause: the victims of this natural disaster,” he said. He argued that those affected would recover “with the help of God,” of the government and of the international community, and asked God to “protect Colombia.” Unlike his earlier appearances, he did not close with his customary slogan, “Firm for the Homeland.”

Religious language has been a constant feature since before he took office. The president was sworn in on Friday using the constitutional formula “I swear to God,” closed a speech to troops in Cali with “Long live Christ the King,” and included an interfaith segment in the ceremony. Days earlier he had gathered his incoming cabinet at a spiritual retreat, after which he said that “God must be placed at the center of every decision.”

Those statements have opened a debate over the scope of state secularism. The 1991 constitution established a non-confessional state, and in 1994 the Constitutional Court struck down a provision requiring the president to renew annually the country's official consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Senator Jennifer Pedraza walked out of the inauguration session, saying the ceremony threatened the secular character of the state. Constitutional lawyer Juan Manuel Charry has argued, by contrast, that a public official retains personal convictions while exercising office.