Sealed with a kiss: Chile celebrates first same-sex weddings

Yahoo – AFP, March 10, 2022 

Jaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva became the firs same-sex couple to legally
tie the knot in Chile (AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)

Two same-sex couples became the first Thursday to legally tie the knot in Chile, which joined a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America to allow LGBTQ couples to marry. 

Under a law approved by Congress in December and signed by outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, they can also now adopt children. 

"We never imagined we would experience this moment in Chile," Jaime Nazar, 39, declared proudly after marrying his partner of seven years Javier Silva, 38, in a Santiago suburb. 

The pair's two young children were there for the historic event. 

"Now, yes, we can say we are a family," said Silva. 

"Our children have the same conditions (as those of straight couples) and will have a better future without discrimination for having two dads who love each other," he added. 

Silva carried the couple's 18-month-old son in his arms, while Nazar bore their daughter of four months. 

The children are the product of surrogate pregnancies abroad that used the sperm of one of the couple. Until now, they had only one legally recognized father -- the biological donor. 

'Super proud' 

From 2015 until Thursday, same-sex couples wishing to formalize their relationship had only the option of civil union agreements, which confer most of the same rights that marriage does, but without the possibility of legal adoption. 

Jaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva became the firs same-sex couple to legally tie
the knot in Chile (AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)

"This is a very important step for the country. We feel super proud, privileged to be here," said Nazar, who is a dentist. 

Consuelo Morales and Pabla Heuser, both 38, said they decided to get married mainly for their two-year-old daughter Josefa. 

"Today Josefa ceases to be an illegitimate daughter," said Morales. Heuser, who carried the child in her womb, had been the girl's sole legal parent until now. 

In total, three same-sex weddings took place in Chile Thursday -- the day the law took effect. 

It came on the eve of the swearing-in of leftist Gabriel Boric as Chile's youngest-ever president. 

Chile had been awaiting the passage of the marriage bill since then-president Michelle Bachelet sent it to Congress in 2017. 

In a surprise move, her conservative successor Pinera announced last year he would seek the urgent passage of the bill -- supported by a majority of Chileans -- through Congress. 

Pinera signed it into law just two days after lawmakers gave the green light ahead of presidential elections in which Boric and his far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast polled neck-and neck. 

Kast vehemently opposed broadening access to marriage rights, unlike Boric who supported the move. 

Chile is now one of 30 countries in the world that allow same-sex marriage, and seven in Latin America along with Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and some states in Mexico.

Thousands protest in Colombia against killings of activists

Yahoo – AFP, July 27, 2019

A protest against the murder of social leaders was held in Medellin, Colombia
(AFP Photo/JOAQUIN SARMIENTO)

A protest against the murder of social leaders was held in Medellin, Colombia (AFP Photo/JOAQUIN SARMIENTO)

Bogota (AFP) - Thousands rallied across Colombia Friday to protest the killing of hundreds of human rights activists since the signing of a historic peace deal with FARC guerrillas.

Demonstrators gathered in major cities under the slogan "defending the peace" to denounce the deaths. 462 campaigners have been killed since 2016, according to the country's ombudsman.

"They are killing us but seeds of life and dignity are being born," Luis Acosta said as he walked toward Bolivar square in the capital Bogota, which was packed with protesters.

Colombian president Ivan Duque joined a rally in the port city of Cartagena but was jeered by parts of the crowd, videos posted on social networks showed.

"Today we are united in a fight against violence and drug trafficking, which has fueled the organized armed groups that have attacked social leaders in the country," Duque said earlier.

A protest against the murder of social leaders was held in Medellin, 

Colombia (AFP Photo/JOAQUIN SARMIENTO)

The rallies were called after the killing of activist Maria del Pilar Hurtado last month, in northern Colombia. A video of her son crying next to her body was widely shared in the country.

Some protesters carried banners of FARC, the former guerilla group, who signed a 2016 peace deal with authorities that ended half a century of armed conflict and established them as a left-wing political party.

The group has criticized the lack of security guarantees for its members after the signing of the pact and said 140 ex-guerrillas and 31 relatives have since been killed.

Armed drug-trafficking groups, National Liberation Army rebels, and the armed forces are mostly responsible for the deaths, prosecutors said.

Thousands attend Venezuela aid concert on barricaded border

Yahoo – AFP, Rodrigo Almonacid with Maria Isabel Sanchez in Caracas, 22 February 2019

Thousands wait for the start of the Venezuela Aid Live concert in Cucuta, Colombia

Thousands of people, many waving Venezuelan flags, flocked to the Venezuela-Colombia border Friday for a charity concert to push for humanitarian aid deliveries in defiance of a blockade by the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Humanitarian aid has become a key focus of the power struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized as interim leader by more than 50 countries.

The tense aid standoff turned deadly even before the concert began, when two people were killed and 15 wounded when they tried to prevent Venezuelan troops from blocking an aid entry point on the Brazilian border.

"An indigenous woman and her husband were killed and at least 15 other members of the Pemon indigenous community were injured," said a local human rights group, Kape Kape.

The clash occurred in southeastern Bolivar state close to the border with Brazil, which Maduro ordered closed on Thursday.

Guaido, who on Thursday set out from Caracas in a convoy of trucks to personally bring in aid from the border, called on the military to arrest those responsible for the killings, "or you will be responsible."

Venezuelan singer Jose Luis Rodriguez "El Puma," performs at the "Venezuela 

Aid Live" concert in Cucuta, Colombia, on February 22, 2019

Fleeing shortage

Some 2.7 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 amid a devastating political and economic crisis, according to UN figures released Friday. It said people were fleeing the crisis -- marked by acute food and medicine shortages -- at a rate of 5,000 a day in 2018.

Maduro, who retains the support of allies China and Russia and crucially, the powerful military, has blocked the entry of aid and accused the United States of plotting a military intervention.

US special representative Elliott Abrams kept up the foreign pressure on Maduro on Friday, joining a Cucuta-bound plane carrying medical supplies and enough food to feed 2,000 people for a month.

"The humanitarian and the social-economic situation in Venezuela is very bad, there's a terrible need for food, for supplies, and the international community is responding," Abrams said.

Moscow has blasted Washington for using aid as a "convenient pretext for conducting military action."

Workers load food and medical aid for Venezuela from a US Boeing 767 aircraft 

at the Hato International Airport in Willemstad, Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles 

on February 21, 2019

Chants of 'freedom'

Hundreds chanted "freedom" and "the government is going to fall" while they waited for the concert to begin under a hot sun on the edge of the Colombian city of Cucuta, the barricaded border crossing visible nearby.

"We must break the impasse, end the humanitarian crisis," British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who organized the concert, told the crowd shortly before veteran Venezuelan crooner Jose Luis Rodriguez began his set.

Branson said he hopes to raise $100 million for humanitarian aid over the next 60 days via internet donations, though meanwhile aid is being stockpiled in Colombia, Brazil and the Caribbean island of Curacao because of Maduro's ban.

Venezuelan singer Carlos Baute, one of 30 stars gathered by Branson to perform during the six-hour concert, said he was there "to open a humanitarian channel" for the delivery of aid. "Tomorrow we will be free," he said.

The line-up includes Latin American giants Carlos Vives and Juanes of Colombia, Juan Luis Guerra of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico's Luis Fonsi.

Satellite photo locating rival concerts on Venezuelan border, with map of 

Venezuela-Colombia border crossings

Colombian President Ivan Duque, Chile's Sebastian Pinera and Mario Abdo of Paraguay will participate at the closing ceremony on Friday evening.

"The concert is an immense help because this type of initiative was necessary to open our eyes and pressure the Venezuelan government," said Wendy Villamizar, a 32-year-old Venezuelan woman wearing a cap with her country's yellow, blue and red tricolor.

In contrast to the milling crowds at Cucuta, hundreds of yards (meters) away on the Venezuelan side of the border in Urena, the site of a rival concert announced by Maduro was quiet.

A stage has been built, but there were few people around the site, heavily guarded by military. Maduro earlier this week announced a three-day "Hands Off Venezuela" concert to last until Sunday but few details of the line-up or schedule have been released.

On Thursday he warned those taking part in the Cucuta event: "All the artists that are going to sing in Colombia should know that they are committing a crime, they are endorsing a military intervention."

VIDEO: The United States returns 38 ancient artifacts to Colombia, which were plundered over decades by a private American collector

VIDEO: The United States returns 38 ancient artifacts to Colombia, which were plundered over decades by a private American collector pic.twitter.com/lwTsNKzGrh

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 11, 2018

VIDEO: The Colombian government has set up social centres to help Venezuelan migrants, where migrants receive toiletries, help with immigration matters, and even haircuts and vaccinations

VIDEO: The Colombian government has set up social centres to help Venezuelan migrants, where migrants receive toiletries, help with immigration matters, and even haircuts and vaccinations pic.twitter.com/a7PrcZcPSh

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 29, 2018

'We apologize': former Colombia FARC rebels seek forgiveness at tribunal

Yahoo – AFP, Rodrigo ALMONACID, Marcela RODRIGUEZ, July 14, 2018

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace is examining kidnappings and disappearances
that took place between 1993 and 2012 (AFP Photo/Raul ARBOLEDA)

Bogota (AFP) - Former rebel FARC commanders in Colombia have appeared at a historic tribunal where for the first time they were made to answer for kidnappings and forced disappearances under the terms of a peace deal.

"We apologize to all of them, we will do the impossible so they can know the truth of what happened, we will assume our responsibilities," said Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono, the leader of what was until recently the most powerful guerrilla group in South America.

He was speaking at a tribunal that opened on Friday under a truth and reconciliation system agreed with the government to recognize the hundreds of thousands of victims of more than a half century of confrontation.

At the end of his appearance, the former guerrilla leader reaffirmed to the press commitments to contribute "as far as possible" towards reparations for those affected and to never again exercise violence.

During their long and failed struggle for power, the FARC resorted to abductions for economic and political purposes.

Thousands of hostages, including military, police and politicians such as Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, were kept for years deep in the jungle before being rescued or released, with many others perishing in captivity.

The prosecution has documented 8,163 victims of kidnapping involving the rebels.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (known by its Spanish acronym JEP) is examining the period between 1993 and 2012.

The peace agreement signed in 2016 by FARC rebels and the government has 

divided Colombian society (AFP Photo/Raul ARBOLEDA)

Thirty-one FARC commanders were summoned to the first hearing, but only Timochenko and two others appeared in person.

The rest sent lawyers, while one -- Jesus Santrich, currently detained in Bogota and awaiting extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges -- participated by video conference.

The ex-rebels pledged to confess their crimes and make reparations to the victims as part of the 2016 agreement that disarmed 7,000 FARC fighters and led to the group becoming a political party last year.

Fulfilling the terms will result in five to eight-year-punishments in a non-prison setting that has yet to be defined.

If they fail to live up to their obligations they are liable to receive between 15 to 20 years in prison.

Outgoing president Juan Manuel Santos celebrated the start of the trials.

"This is a very important signal, because what it means is that everything that had been said about this being a peace without accounting was untrue," he told reporters.

The peace agreement, signed in 2016, has divided Colombian society.

Half vehemently defends the agreement, while the other says the concessions it offered the rebels are too great.

President-elect Ivan Duque, who will assume power on August 7, won elections promising to modify the deal to prevent former FARC leaders from becoming lawmakers.

The pact guarantees FARC ten seats in Congress.

Outside the building where the tribunal took place, around twenty people who were prevented from entering gathered in silence and exhibited photographs of those "kidnapped or disappeared" at the hands of the rebels.

"We need to know the truth most of all. They must only get reduced sentences if they tell us what really happened to the people they kidnapped," said Olga Rojas, the widow of Sergeant Jose Vicente Rojas, who disappeared in 1992.

Dutch woman with a trumpet taking Colombian salsa by storm

Yahoo – AFP, Florence PANOUSSIAN, November 16, 2017

Dutch musician and trumpet player Maite Hontele (C) performs in a bar with
a salsa band in Bogota -- she says she's "Colombian at heartt" (AFP Photo/
Raul Arboleda)

Bogota (AFP) - A woman playing trumpet in a salsa band in traditionally macho South America is a rare thing. It's rarer still when that woman is Dutch.

Since arriving on Colombia's salsa scene, Maite Hontele has been blasting her horn to full houses from Bogota to Seoul and has gradually won the respect of salsa's greats.

"I was born on the wrong continent," says Hontele, a tall, blonde 37-year old from the central Netherlands.

She insists she's "Colombian at heart."

Her love affair with the country began when she played Bogota's Teatro Colon while visiting from the Netherlands in 2003 with the Rumbata Big Band. The audience loved her and the feeling was mutual.

"I fell in love with Colombia, with its people, its cities, its energy, its diversity," she says in an interview at her apartment in Bogota's bohemian La Macarena quarter.

Hontele followed her heart and her trumpet to Colombia, settling in Medellin for seven years and churning out record after record as well as touring with her own band.

Now she plays regularly with the greats of the genre -- people like Panama's Ruben Blades, Venezuela's Oscar D'Leon and the Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba.

In 2014, official recognition came when her album "Dejame asi" (Leave Me Like This) was nominated for Best Salsa Album at the Latin Grammys, and she shared the limelight with such stars as Marc Anthony and Tito Nieves.

She has just returned to Colombia from Havana, where she spent two months recording her fifth album, "Cuba linda" (Beautiful Cuba) with the Orquesta Aragon.

Her latest single, "Casi Muero" (I nearly died), from the album of the same name, came out on November 3.

That evening, Maite was back where it all started, at Bogota's "big, beautiful" 800-seat Teatro Colon.

Hontele plays to a full house at Bogota's Teatro Colon (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta)

On their feet

The sell-out crowd was on its feet from the opening notes of the third song in her set, "Maria Cristina me quiere gobernar" (Maria Cristina wants to control me).

From the stage right down to the cheap seats, fans danced between the red velvet seats while Hontele grooved on stage with her musicians.

The crowd took up the chorus of some of her best known tunes, "Que bonito" (How Nice) and "Nonchecita."

Like many in the crowd that night, Jaime Ospino, 49, knew all the material.

"This is a great concert," he told AFP.

In early October, Hontele was playing to another full house at the Cafe Libro, the Colombian capital's top spot for tropical music.

Long-time fan Angela Ramirez was there celebrating her 38th birthday.

"I've always loved salsa. But the idea of a Dutch woman who plays the trumpet in Colombia gives me chills!" Ramirez said.

Salsa from the cradle

Hontele laughs about a certain irony in her life story: "I never chose the trumpet," she says. The instrument chose her.

She first held a trumpet as a nine-year old when playing in a local brass band in her home village of Haaften.

She was immersed in Latin American music as a child, raised to the rhythms of her father's collection of Caribbean vinyl records.

Hontele often has her fans dancing throughout her sets (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta)

"I grew up with these sounds," she says. "He would go to Paris to look for records, just off the presses. Celia Cruz, the Gran Combo of Puerto Rico, etc."

No surprise then that as a 14-year-old, she preferred to play Latin American music. She convinced the Rotterdam Conservatory to bring in a specialized Latin music teacher rather than be forced to go the usual route of classical or jazz training.

She began playing in Dutch nightclubs as a teenager, "until six in the morning -- the only woman in a group of men, playing merengue, bachata, and Cuban salsa."

Looking back, getting out on the club scene was "the best education."

For her, the secret of rhythm lies "not only in the technique, but where the flavor is, and the flavor is in the street -- that's where you have to look for it."

These days, she finds that flavor in Bogota's streets, which she moves through in true Dutch style -- by bicycle.

She claims to be a vegan, listens to Cuban sounds as much as Bach or pop, and even as she prepares for a European tour, she says she just wants to be the "the neighbor who plays the trumpet."

"It doesn't interest me to be famous, to ride in a limousine," Hontele says.

She's already played with some of South America's greats, but apart from Sting, her biggest dream is to play with Carlos Vives.

"It would close the circle," she says.

As a kid, already steeped in the music but without a word of Spanish, she sang along to the Colombian singer's hit at the time, "Pa' Mayte" (For Mayte), reading into it a kind of musical destiny.

"I thought it was about me," she says.

Dutch woman with a trumpet taking Colombian salsa by storm https://t.co/EywZdC37uM - by @Arroussiak for @AFP pic.twitter.com/mq8xiKRixm

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 16, 2017

A woman playing trumpet in a salsa band in traditionally macho South America is a rare thing. It's rarer still when that woman is Dutch pic.twitter.com/yNqtmrAp3K

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 18, 2017

EU removes Colombia's FARC from terror blacklist

Yahoo – AFP, November 13, 2017

Step in the right direction: A demobilized FARC member making shoes in a
Colombian training and reincorporation zone, where former guerrilla fighters
receive help in adapting to civilian life (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU on Monday removed Colombia's FARC from its list of terrorist organisations, an official told AFP, after the former guerilla movement disarmed as part of a peace deal and relaunched itself as a political party.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which battled the government for half a century in a conflict that left some 260,000 people dead, reached a historic peace deal last year and its former leader now plans to run for president.

The decision to remove FARC from the list permanently comes after the EU suspended its terror listing in September 2016 in a bid to help the peace process in Colombia.

"The Council adopted the legal acts providing for the de-listing of the FARC from the EU list of individuals and entities subject to restrictive measures to combat terrorism," an EU official told AFP, adding that the decision would be announced officially on Tuesday.

FARC guerilla leader Rodrigo Londono, also known as "Timochenko", will run

in 2018's presidential election (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

After agreeing to the peace deal and disarming, the rebels transformed their movement into a political party, keeping the same initials but changing the official name to the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force.

Rodrigo Londono, 58, the group's guerilla leader better known by his nickname "Timochenko", will run in the presidential election for the party, with the first round of voting scheduled for May 2018.

The UN has heard of concerns about progress under the peace deal. There are warnings that the reintegration of former fighters is not progressing well, with many finding it difficult to return to civilian life.

FARC's demobilisation has also triggered battles over territory it used to control, the Organization of American States warned last week, particularly areas linked to the drug trade.

A taste of freedom in a Colombian women's prison

Yahoo – AFP, Santiago TORRADO, October 5, 2017

Colombian inmates serving customers at El Interno, a restaurant in the San
Diego jail in Cartagena (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Cartagena (Colombia) (AFP) - Arleth Martinez smooths her clothes, kisses a photo of her twins and leaves for work. It's only a few meters from her Colombian cell to her unusually fragrant workplace, South America's first gastronomic prison restaurant.

Following the example of South Africa's Pollsmoor Prison, where Nelson Mandela wound down his 27-year sentence, and another in Milan, inmates at the teeming women's prison in downtown Cartagena are getting a taste for reintegration back into society with an experience that mixes cuisine with customer service.

The photo of the seven-year-old twins is Arleth's "lucky charm" -- a constant reminder of the future.

Sentenced to six years for extortion in 2015, present-day life in the San Diego prison has become a little more palatable since she started working at the restaurant late last year.

"Even though I'm still in prison, I feel free because it's a completely different environment," said the 26-year-old, wearing a pristine black t-shirt and apron, her hair gathered in a colorful pink turban. At least around the restaurant "you don't see so many bars".

Fifteen of the 150 inmates, most of them accused of murder or drug trafficking, work either in the kitchen, or in table service. The work is incentivised -- two days washing dishes, preparing or serving food, gets a day of prison time reduced.

Colombian inmates serving customers at El Interno, a restaurant in the San 

Diego jail in Cartagena (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

A second chance

A fuchsia curtain separates the 50-seat restaurant from the cells. A mural of flowers painted by the inmates provides some colorful relief from the drab prison surroundings.

Named "El Interno," which roughly translates as "The Intern," the eatery provides a little extra frisson for curious locals and tourists while they enjoy a 30-dollar menu that runs from "fish ceviche in coconut milk" to "rice with seafood" and "posta Cartagenera" -- meat in black sauce typical of the city.

"When they arrive, people know that they are entering a prison, and that they will be served by prisoners," said Johana Bahamon, a Colombian television actress whose Accion Interna (Internal Action) Foundation was the driving force behind the idea.

"When they leave, they are happy to have met talented, courageous and real human beings," Bahamon told AFP.

El Interno is a rare opportunity for inmates in a country that has the largest prison population in South America after Brazil.

Colombian inmate Arleth Martinez shows photos of her twins in the San Diego

jail in Cartagena, Colombia (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

In the last 17 years, the number of those behind bars in Colombia has more than doubled from 51,500 to 119,000, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Tougher sentences and an increase in convictions for drug trafficking have filled Colombia's 138 prisons to well beyond their combined 80,000 capacity.

Bahamon believes that women in these overcrowded prisons badly need to be offered a fresh start.

It's a recurring theme at the restaurant.

"Yo creo en las segundas oportunidades" (I believe in second chances) is emblazoned on Arleth's black T-shirt and inscribed on the signs on the walls pointing to the colorful eatery.

Bahamon said she was inspired by InGalera, a public restaurant run by Italian prisoners which set up in the parking lot of a Milan prison a few years ago.

She convinced the authorities to adapt the concept to the San Diego prison, located right in the tourist heart of Cartagena, a few meters from the luxurious hotels that abound around the old Colonial city's historic port.

For well-to-do customers like Antonio Galan, from the capital Bogota, "everything has a flavor and aroma of freedom, from the taste of the dishes to the ambiance of the restaurant."

25 to a cell

Thus, in the evenings at least, Arleth is surrounded by well-heeled influencers, personalities and media officials, who stand in solidarity with the cause.

Like other prisons in Colombia, San Diego is overcrowded. Some 150 women 

share a space designed for just 100 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

El Interno offers gourmet dinners from Tuesday to Sunday. But when it closes at 11:00 pm, it's back to the mundane reality of answering roll call in their prison cells for Arleth and her fellow inmates.

Like other prisons in Colombia, San Diego is overcrowded. Some 150 women, many of whom are awaiting trial, share a space designed for just 100.

When she came to San Diego, Arleth said she got the shock of her life, as she had to come to terms with the prison drug abuse, poor hygiene, and a dilapidated building.

For four months she slept on the floor, 25 to a cell. She was anxious for her children, entrusted to their grandmother. Their father, she says, mistreated and abandoned his family.

But last year she passed her secondary school exams and trained as a waitress in the prison. Her work at the restaurant has earned her the right to a rare luxury here -- a bunk in a cell.

In prison, "only warriors" survive, she said.

A taste of freedom in Colombian women's prison - South America's first gastronomic prison restaurant #AccionInterna pic.twitter.com/6zihu5nVt9

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 5, 2017

Mexico's biggest quake in century kills at least 35

Yahoo – AFP, Sofia MISELEM, Joshua Howat BERGER, September 8, 2017

A street is seen in the eastern area of Mexico City after a 8,2 earthquake
on September 8, 2017 (AFP Photo/ALFREDO ESTRELLA)

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's most powerful earthquake in a century killed at least 35 people, officials said Friday, after it struck the Pacific coast, wrecking homes and sending families fleeing into the streets.

President Enrique Pena Nieto described the 8.2 magnitude quake as "a major earthquake in scale and magnitude, the strongest in the past 100 years."

The southeastern Pacific coast states of Oaxaca and Chiapas appeared to have borne the brunt of the damage, with 25 people killed in Oaxaca alone, Mexico's agriculture secretary Jose Calzada said.

The worst destruction appeared to be in Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 17 people were confirmed dead, state governor Alejandro Murat said on local television.

Officials said the death toll there could rise.

"There are houses that collapsed with people inside," Luis Felipe Puente, director general of the emergency response agency, told TV news channel Milenio.

A hotel also collapsed in Juchitan, the town hall partly caved in, and many homes were badly damaged.

Seven people were killed in Chiapas and three people, including at least two children, were killed in neighboring Tabasco state, authorities said.

In Tabasco, one child was crushed by a collapsing wall. Another, an infant on a respirator, died after the quake triggered a power outage.

Map showing the epicentre of a 8.1-magnitude quake that hit the coast of Mexico

 late Thursday and countries in the Americas with tsunami warning (AFP Photo/

Laurence CHU)

Fleeing in pajamas

The quake epicenter was about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the coastal town of Tonala, in far southern Chiapas state, and hit at 11:49 pm Thursday (0449 GMT Friday), Mexico's seismologic service said.

The US Geological Survey put the magnitude slightly lower, at 8.1. That is the same as a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City -- the country's most destructive ever.

The quake shook a large swath of the country and was felt as far north as Mexico City -- some 800 kilometers from the epicenter -- where people fled their homes after hearing sirens go off as buildings trembled and swayed.

Many of those fleeing were in their night clothes. Some clutched babies and pets as they stumbled onto the streets.

"Not another one. God, please no," said one woman, falling to her knees to pray.

"I was driving when the ground started to shake. The car was wobbling," said Cristian Rodriguez, a 28-year-old Uber driver in Mexico City.

Onelia Guerra, an anxious Oaxaca local who was in the capital, was taking a plane back to home to check on her family.

"My father and my 14-year-old son are alone there," she told AFP.

Hurricane coming

The quake injured four people and damaged homes in neighboring Guatemala, the country's state disaster authority head Sergio Cabanas told reporters.

The quake struck as Mexicans were also bracing for the impact of Hurricane Katia, which strengthened to a Category Two storm as it rumbled towards the state of Veracruz on the Gulf coast.

It is one of three active hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean alongside Irma and Jose.

Mexico is vulnerable to hurricanes, given its location and its Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, and is hit by a least a dozen weather events a year.

Residents gather on a street in Mexico City on September 7, 2017, after an 

earthquake of magnitude 8.1, according to the US Geological Survey, struck the 

south and was felt as far away as the capital (AFP Photo/Pedro PARDO)

Tsunami alert lifted

Speaking from the National Disaster Prevention Center's headquarters, where he was supervising the emergency response, Pena Nieto said that 50 million people out of Mexico's population of 120 million people felt the quake.

Mexican officials ordered schools to remain closed Friday in 11 states, including Mexico City, so they could inspect for structural damage.

The quake struck at a depth of 69.7 kilometers, according to the USGS.

Initially, authorities issued a tsunami alert for a huge stretch of coastline starting in central Mexico and spanning Central America all the way down to Ecuador.

It was later lifted, but Mexico remained on alert for aftershocks.

Since the 1985 earthquake, Mexican authorities have instituted a stricter building code and developed an alert system using sensors placed on the coasts.

Mexico sits atop five tectonic plates, whose movement makes it one of the most seismically active countries in the world.

Pope Francis, at an open air mass on a visit to Colombia, said he was praying "for those who have lost their lives and their families" in the quake.

#UPDATE #HurricaneKatia strengthens to Category Two as Atlantic tropical mega-storms break records in 2017 https://t.co/4cRbW5IkF0 pic.twitter.com/WEqzksWJ0C

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 8, 2017

Related Articles:

Hurricane records broken in 2017

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"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”