El Niño's Impact on Cocoa Crops and Bleak Prospects for Brazil

Rescue teams working in the debris of collapsed buildings in Cali, Colombia, managed to retrieve a live baby on Tuesday morning. This emotional moment brought hope to the teams fighting against time to locate other survivors of the tragedy.

The rescue operation, which lasted several hours, was witnessed by dozens of people anxiously awaiting the safe removal of the child, at which point there were festive applause. It was also reported that the child's mother was rescued.

This rescue renews the hope of everyone involved in the search for more lives after the 7.4 magnitude tremor in the South American country. Rescuers continue to look for signs among the hundreds of destroyed structures.

Cali, the capital of the Valle del Cauca department (located in the southwest), registered the highest number of victims, followed by Pereira, the capital of Risaralda, which borders San José del Palmar (Chocó), the epicenter of the quake. Authorities have not yet released the number of missing persons, despite thousands of people reporting difficulty finding relatives and friends.

In the three mentioned departments, in addition to Caldas and Quindío, in the central coffee-growing region of Colombia, building and residential collapses occurred, as well as damage to essential infrastructure such as hospitals, airports, public services, and transportation systems.

Pereira, Cali, Quibdó, Manizales, and Armenia are the main cities under red alert due to the extent of the damage, with at least 165 buildings destroyed in total. After the initial incidents, including reports of looting, some local authorities decreed mandatory curfews, aiming both to facilitate the work of emergency teams and to ensure safety on the streets, which was reinforced by the presence of the Army.

The Colombian president, Abelardo de la Espriella, plans to visit the affected areas in the coming days. He has already been to Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, where the epicenter of the worst earthquake recorded in Colombia in a decade is located.

After a series of storms, wind gusts, and other intense weather events recorded in various areas of Brazil recently, the question arose as to whether El Niño is responsible for these occurrences. Experts consulted by Olhar Digital indicate that the climate phenomenon has already begun to affect the country, however, it is not the only explanatory factor.