Colombia’s ‘lost children’ remain open wound 40 years after deadly volcanic eruption

The Star

Forty years after a volcanic eruption triggered a deadly mudslide that buried the town of Armero, Colombians gathered on Nov 13 to honour the victims.  The 1985 tragedy that claimed about 25,000 lives – nearly 70% of the town’s population – remains as one of Latin America’s worst natural disasters.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00This video is brought to you by the

00:30That night I lived in the tragedy of my own flesh.

00:47I saw the lamentations of all the children, young people, animals,

00:51and among those, unfortunately, my brother and my aunts,

00:55all my family, my great friends.

00:57And it hurts a lot because I lived it at 12 o'clock,

01:02at 11 o'clock I lived it.

01:04The feeling of finding a sister is, for me, a block,

01:08not to believe me.

01:10For me, it was someone I didn't express myself.

01:13When I see myself in the recordings, I think, wow,

01:16it costed a lot.

01:18I remember that Francisco helped me a lot to asimilar it,

01:23because for me, it was like that the world, of repente,

01:27it was like what I knew.

01:29And for Angela, it was a gift.

01:31It was her birthday.

01:32In a little bit, she told me,

01:34you're the best gift I've ever had.

01:36No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

01:41By the time I found a mushroom,

01:43I saw that earthcence,

01:44and it's trembling.

01:45I saw it.

01:46And we were up to the second floor.

01:47When we were at the second floor,

01:50it looked toward the back

01:51and saw a black cloud,

01:55and it looked great.

01:57It was a nightmare when I was raised up.

02:00That was when we all came to the ground and we opened.

02:05My heart tells me that they are alive,

02:08what is the child and the child.

02:12And I keep waiting for them until the day I die,

02:16but I don't lose the faith of them, that they are alive.

02:20That one day we will find out.

02:22The biggest hurt that has Ermero is the issue of the lost children.

02:28A father and a mother never stop looking for a child,

02:31and less knowing that their child was alive in a TV show of the time,

02:38or that there are tests.

02:39Today we remember our lives, and we cried our dead,

02:44for the worst tragedy of the Colombian history,

02:48and, undoubtedly, one of the most tragic in the history of the world in the 20th century.

02:55Una tragedia que nos robó familias, que nos robó amigos, que nos robó vecinos.

03:0225.000 almas arrebatadas a la vida.

03:06Trae fotos, actas y testimonios de aquellos niños que pasaron por nuestra institución.

03:15El bienestar familiar, al igual que las otras instituciones del Estado,

03:20pide hoy a los armeritas perdón por los vacíos históricos,

03:24perdón por los 40 años de silencio.

03:27Y hoy ponemos a disposición toda nuestra fuerza institucional

03:32para reconstruir la memoria de los armeritas que estuvieron ahí 40 años después.

03:38Que nos vemos en el próximo video.

03:52Siéntrico Pum Listen,

03:53I'll see you soon.

03:56Vamos a disposición.

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