The Quebrada Blanca landslide left nearly 500 people dead.
On June 28, 1974, what is considered the worst road tragedy that has ever happened in Colombia occurred: the Quebrada Blanca avalanche, on the Bogotá-Villavicencio highway.
That day, which was also a Friday like this year, shortly before 4:00 p.m., part of the mountain broke away from the right side of the ravine, killing nearly 500 people. According to the testimonies of those who were saved from being buried by the avalanche, the earth roared as if shaken by an earthquake.
The mass removal of mud and rock became trapped and generated a violent air current that expelled the vehicles and people who were crowded 300 meters below. Some flew to the bottom of the cliff and others were taken out of the area.
“A cloud of dirt obscured the area. It seemed like midnight. Everything was silent. Minutes later, some people who managed to save themselves from the draft began to cross the ravine, but the earth mixed with water turned into mud and began to flow downward, like a cylinder that grew every second. A large number of people were buried in the place,” said survivors of this tragedy.
Given the impossibility of rescuing the bodies, the site of the tragedy was declared a cemetery.
The composer, declaimer and singer Manuel Orozco, ‘El clarín de Llano Grande’, wrote a poem about this tragedy, which begins like this:
“Harp maestro, my feelings are killing me…
Today I am very sad
and my heart expands
because in the angry place
called White Ravine
they left forever
at the bottom of the grim reaper
many innocent lives
good and maybe bad
carrying with themselves
his life and his hope
leaving for his own
only anguish in the soul
and a poem of bitterness
for Colombian history.
“Whoever wanted with my verses
draw with my words
that fateful day
in what mountain and ravine
in a formidable duo
moved by strange force
they put one more grade
of pain and misfortune
marginalization and oblivion
to my beautiful flat land
leaving us now yes
tied up on all fours
because the only culprit
It is the center of my country
that have only been promises
and always the same thing.”
