Dozens Die as Series of Quakes Rocks Bolivia

Earthquakes rolled through central Bolivia early Friday, destroying hundreds of adobe homes in remote mountain towns. As many as 60 people were killed, many as they slept, the country’s civil defense chief said.

Defense Minister Fernando Kieffer Guzman said at least 33 bodies had been found.

Landslides came crashing down on roads leading to the towns, hampering relief efforts and forcing army paratroopers to drop from helicopters to reach hard-hit areas.

More than 100 people were missing, and dozens were injured, civil defense chief Gen. Luis Montero said. Among the dead were 10 sleeping children.

A magnitude 5.9 quake struck near Aiquile, a village of 5,000 in central Cochabamba province. The San Calixto Observatory in La Paz said a second quake with a magnitude of 6.8 hit the same region 13 minutes later. The epicenter was 55 miles below the Earth’s surface.

Repeated aftershocks--as many as 150 in the first 12 hours--sent panicked residents fleeing any buildings left standing. About 30,000 people, mostly Quechua Indian farmers, live in the area hit by the quakes, 250 miles southeast of La Paz, the capital.

President Hugo Banzer Suarez flew to Aiquile to direct relief efforts.

“We are taking our solidarity to the victims and their families. We are going to help them with everything available,” he said.

The president, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator in the 1970s and was voted back into power last year, asked the population and the news media for calm, saying, “Panic won’t help.”

Montero said 80% of the houses in Aiquile were destroyed. The roof of the Aiquile hospital caved in, and a landslide blocked access to the town.

Radio reports from nearby Totora indicated that the town of several thousand people was almost wiped out.

In Aiquile, Totora and Pocoma, townspeople gathered in the main plazas after the jolts, fearing the aftershocks would bring down more buildings. In other areas, hundreds of people were stranded on rural highways by landslides.

Aiquile and Totora are colonial towns that have been declared national historical monuments. Their housing is mostly made from traditional adobe bricks.

Helicopters flew in emergency supplies of food and medicine from Cochabamba, 80 miles to the north, and brought out the injured. Friends and relatives jammed the main hospital at Cochabamba, trying to find loved ones among the injured.

The quakes were felt as far away as La Paz, where some residents ran outside in panic when their buildings swayed back and forth.

The last powerful earthquake to hit Bolivia came June 9, 1994, with a magnitude of 8.2. It did no damage since the epicenter was 550 miles below the Earth’s surface, but it was felt as far away as Chicago and Canada.