Colombia’s earthquake uproots people the war had already moved

BOGOTÁ — An earthquake that has already killed more than 300 people in Colombia is now producing a crueler statistic: families who were displaced by conflict, who rebuilt with nothing, and who have nothing again. El País spoke with survivors who put it without poetry. “We arrived with nothing and we’re back to having nothing.”

Natural disaster is a phrase that hides a social fact. The shaking is natural. Who lived in the weakest housing, on the worst slope, with the least insurance, is not. Colombia’s long war moved people into places that were available, which is often another way of saying unsafe. The quake found them there.

Thousands of homes are destroyed. Hundreds of people face displacement twice. The emergency response will be measured in tents and water. The political response will be measured in whether a state that could not protect people from armed groups can protect them from the ground.