“Although they were present, there was no direction for the rescue”: relatives of tourists missing in Buenaventura ask for the support of the authorities

Jorge Darío Ortiz, father of Ana María Ortiz and Alejandro Cortés, brother of Leonardo Cortés, reported in a two-minute video that managed to reach the places of the events in the sector of Agua Clara, village of Cisneros to collaborate in the search of their missing relatives due to a climatic emergency suffered after an avalanche which took away more than 70 houses and a hut where they were staying. tourists from Cali.

They said that from 9:00 a.m. on Saturday March 20, they arrived at the scene and in fact checked that there was the presence of rescue organizations such as Civil Defense, Buenaventura firefighters and members of the national army marching. tower and a helicopter carrying out overflights in the area of ​​more than 5 kilometers within a radius, but due to the heavy rains they could not start the search in advance and there were no results.

Leonardo Cortés said he was grateful for the accompaniment but that the two boats the community has made available are private efforts and are insufficient for the scale of what has happened. He also said authorities should make a more comprehensive effort to undertake rigorous research.

This is how the disappearance happened

The heavy rains in the department of Valle del Cauca caused the disappearance of Ana María Ortiz and Leonardo Cortés, two 29-year-old tourists who were staying in a hut in Buenaventura and who were not seen again after the overflow of two rivers in the area of ​​Agua Clara, district of Cisneros.

It seems, The rising waters caused the tributaries to overflow and they destroyed the homes of the inhabitants of the town., on the night of Friday March 19, the inhabitants of the place reported the great avalanche which he took the homes and personal effects of at least 70 families affected by the environmental incident.

According to Arbinton López, risk management coordinator for Buenaventura, the disappearance of the tourists took place after the collapse of one of the huts where Ana María Ortiz and Leonardo Cortés were staying:

The current has dragged the house, there are two missing people who are searched by the community with the support of firefighters from Sabaletas, which is the closest place

The information the affected community was able to gather on the missing tourist couple is that they were from Cali and that They had arrived in the Buenaventura district by mobilizing in a Volkswagen van registered JIN 262 from the capital Valle del Cauca..

His friends and acquaintances immediately reacted to disseminate the images of the missing and begin the search. For this they had the WhatsApp phone number 321 703 4671 in the name of Daniel Velasco and the line 311 625 8157 so that their relatives could be informed of the situation..

This was published by the newspaper El País de Cali, reporting the situation in order to find the tourist couple:

Meanwhile, the rescue and risk control agency with firefighters from the port of Valle del Cauca are searching the waters of the Agua Clara river for tourists who suffered the accident due to the environmental emergency near the village 8, where all contact was lost with the missing.

The rise of the Sabaletas and Anchichayá rivers was decisive in the environmental disaster.

Daniel Velasco, a friend of the missing victims in the Buenaventura hut, told El País de Cali newspaper that he had had dialogues with Civil Defense and the Risk Management Secretariat to find the couple and conduct more surveys. This was said by the citizen to the media:

What they told us was that since 7:00 p.m. on Friday March 19, the river is getting bigger and there has been an avalanche. Apparently the river washed away the hut they were in

Despite the little information on the missing, Velasco traveled to Buenaventura to undertake social work that would allow the discovery of the couple. The friend of the victims said that Leonardo Cortés works in the field of digital marketing and Ana María Ortiz is dedicated to architecture.

With the homes and properties of several families severely damaged by the emergency, the community called on the authorities to take charge of the situation and locate the missing.

So far, winter in Valle del Cauca has claimed 9 lives and damaged pancoger crops. According to relief agencies, across the country at least 43 people died in March 2021 due to the winter season.

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