A Family's Search for Two Missing Mexicans in Pereira

Mexican nationals Mario Zapata and Brenda Flores have not been heard from since the morning of the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on 10 August, and their relatives say they have been forced to rely mainly on social media and live video from rescue sites because official consular updates have been scarce.

The couple travelled to Colombia on 6 August and made their way to the department of Risaralda for a holiday. Their last routine message to family arrived at 7:05 local time on the day of the quake, roughly half an hour before the tremor. Relatives later said they were able to confirm through images shared online that the pair had been staying at the Hotel Dibeni, one of the central Pereira buildings damaged by the earthquake.

More than three days after the quake, the family said a report had been filed with the Mexican Embassy in Colombia, but the information received through diplomatic channels has not been enough. Brenda Flores's 18-year-old son said he did not get help to complete his passport process and join the trip, so a daughter of Zapata and a sister of Flores are scheduled to travel on Saturday and expect to reach Pereira on Sunday to gather first-hand information from rescue teams.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the Mexican rescue brigade Topos Tlatelolco was not sent to the affected zone because its deployment “was not approved by the Government of Colombia”. Colombian authorities reported on Friday that the earthquake had left 285 people dead, 3,975 injured and 379 missing.

Advertisement

Why the Family Is Bypassing Official Consular Channels

The Family's Information Gap

The decision to send two relatives to Pereira is a direct response to what the family describes as insufficient consular updates. Mario, a son of Zapata, told EFE that the most useful information has come from social media posts and live broadcasts by people at the scene, rather than from official channels. That has left relatives trying to verify rescue activity remotely and prompted them to seek information first-hand instead of depending on the embassy or live streams.

Mexico-Colombia Consular and Rescue Coordination

The case shows the practical limits of consular support during a large-scale disaster. Although the family filed a report with the Mexican Embassy, they still had no confirmed information on the couple's whereabouts more than three days later. Separately, President Sheinbaum said the Mexican Topos Tlatelolco brigade was not deployed because the Colombian government had not approved its mobilisation. The immediate search therefore depends on Colombian emergency teams working through damaged structures in Pereira.

Why Individual Cases Are Moving Slowly

The couple's last known location, as identified by family members from social media images, was the Hotel Dibeni, one of the central Pereira buildings hit by the quake. The official toll of 285 deaths, 3,975 injuries and 379 missing across the affected region helps explain the pace of consular and rescue updates: emergency services are managing a regional disaster in which hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, rather than a single isolated incident.