Colombia earthquake sparks political readings of the ground

The Colombia earthquake and the politics of messages from the earth

What message did the Colombia earthquake send? It depends on who you ask. For some, a warning about climate change; for others, a divine warning; and for the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, an occasion to utter words that social media is still digesting. The quake shook the country and, within minutes, also the timelines of half of Spain.

Reactions were quick to mix tectonic plates with ideological trenches. While some saw the tremor as a sarracena punishment, others responded with irony: was it climate change, Franco, Venezuela? The online conversation became yet another weapon in the usual battles, and the real victim, the human drama on the ground, was left in the background.

Amid the noise, some tried to bring science to the table: earthquakes are simply what tectonic plates do. No settling of scores with the cosmos. The earth sends no messages; it just moves. And, as one comment recalled, it also burns when drug trafficking sets vegetation on fire to grow drugs. That is the only "communication" nature has with us: the one we provoke.

The earth screams, yes, but human beings prefer to hear their own echo. The Colombia earthquake brought no hidden message; what it did was reflect back all the prejudices we carry inside. Meanwhile, the plates will keep sliding, indifferent to our tweets and our headlines. Perhaps the only lesson is that, for a natural disaster, the best interpreter is a seismologist, not a tweeter.